


The Scarlett Cauldron

by London_Halcyon



Series: The Mad Witch [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Hogwarts Mystery
Genre: Alternate Canon, Animagus, Childhood Trauma, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Post-Canon, Slow Burn, Video Game: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Werewolves, Wolfsbane Potion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2020-05-19 16:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 46,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19360849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/London_Halcyon/pseuds/London_Halcyon
Summary: It is the summer of 1996, and Lord Voldemort's reappearance has been made known to all of the Wizarding World. Awaiting his next move, Order members Penny Haywood and Lilianna Flores keep a close eye on Hogwarts from a small apothecary in Hogsmeade. But when a couple of American wizards smuggle a werewolf into town, they find themselves faced with a much more pressing matter. With only a week to track down the rare ingredients necessary for a Wolfsbane Potion and with a Ministry official watching them like a hawk, Penny and Lily must push aside old traumas in order to prevent what could turn into a deadly catastrophe. But scars never truly fade, and not everything is as it appears.





	1. The Scarlett Cauldron

**Author's Note:**

> I do my best to stick close to known canon with this fic (which is a standalone spin-off of the Mad Witch), but there are a few minor deviations, most namely from the first-year Halloween event. This is largely because I want these werewolves to have book canon traits. That is, they are more wolf-like in appearance, and a Wolfsbane Potion must be taken every night for the week leading up to the full moon. Since the movies and Hogwarts Mystery both portray them differently, I thought I would clarify this to avoid confusion.

Ava hesitated before the door of the shop and glanced up at the wooden sign dangling over her head. On the chestnut surface, a hooded witch stirred a deep red cauldron, which was curiously engraved was the smoky, horse-like figure of a thestral. The morning sun threw the sign’s shadow against the shop window, drawing her eyes to neat red letters painted on the glass: The Scarlett Cauldron. This was the right place then. There was no mistaking it. 

She tried not to think about why a symbol of death would be on the sign of an apothecary; it seemed like a bad omen. If things went wrong, she would be driven out of town at best. At worst, she would be arrested. But she was out of options, and it was better she try her luck in the isolated countryside instead of a big city like London. 

Taking a deep breath, she pushed through the door into the shop, which was pleasantly cool and dim compared to the warm, blinding day outside. A little bell jingled happily in greeting as she entered, and an amiable female voice called from out of sight in the back, “I’ll be right with you!”

Ava hovered just inside the door, blinking repeatedly in adjustment to the abrupt light change, and the longer she stood there, the more she saw. It would have appeared that if an item had anything to do with a potion, this place had it. There were numerous tables and shelves that displayed everything from cauldrons, to recipes, to readymade vials, to jars of more ingredients than she could count or name. The shop clearly lived up to its reputation of being one of the best-stocked in Britain, which would have been odd due to its isolation if not for its close proximity to Hogwarts. To Ava, it was an extraordinarily lucky find, and hopefully one that would work to her benefit. The less people around, the less likely anyone was going to get hurt. 

A young woman entered from another room. She looked about Ava’s age—in her early twenties—and her appearance for the most part was simple and practical. She wore a plain white blouse and a black skirt and stockings, and around her waist was a belt full of pouches and multicolored vials. Braids were looped through her long blond hair, and she had strikingly beautiful sapphire eyes that were as wide and friendly as the smile on her cherry lips. “How can I help you?” she asked cheerfully. 

“Are you Penny Haywood?” Ava asked, painfully aware of her nonnative accent. 

The witch’s expression stayed pleasant, albeit curious. “Please, call me Penny. And you are?”

“Avalon Br—” She broke off before saying her last name and corrected herself. “Er, you can just call me Avalon. I was told you’re the best potioneer this side of Britain.”

Penny laughed. “I may try, but that’s an exaggeration. You’ll find that Professor Snape over at Hogwarts is leagues more skilled than I am.”

“Maybe.” Ava said slowly. “But I was told you’re a person who can be trusted.”

“Oh?” Penny’s demeanor instantly became wary. A black and white cat suddenly hopped onto the counter next to her, and she looked at it for a moment before returning her gaze to Ava. “Who told you that?”

Ava shrugged and answered honestly, “Anyone you ask really.” She realized she was off to a bad start. “I’m sorry, that sounds suspicious. I would never ask you to brew anything illegal, believe me.”

Penny raised her eyebrows. “So you really do want me to brew a potion? You’re not here to—” She broke off. 

“Here to what?”

She shook her head. “Never mind. It’s not important. What’s your request?”

And here is where it got complicated. “Well, you see...” Ava hesitated, uncertain how to phrase her words in a way that would elicit an agreeable response. “I was wondering if, uh...if you knew how to brew a Wolfsbane Potion?”

All the color drained from Penny’s face. The cat’s ears pricked up, and its tail twitched agitatedly. “Why would you need a Wolfsbane Potion?” she breathed. 

“Well, I mean, it’s not for me,” Ava stumbled. “Not exactly. I’m a Magizoologist, and you know, I work with creatures. And it can be dangerous going into the wild, so I’d thought it’d be good to have some on me. And...” She trailed off with a sigh. She was only talking about one of the most expensive potions in existence. “I know that’s not how it works. I don’t know how to make a good excuse when there’s really only one use for it.”

“Werewolves, you mean,” Penny said, her voice an octave higher. 

“Er...yes. As I said, it’s not for me.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t have anything to do with werewolves.”

Oh, no, this was most definitely going poorly. Ava had hoped she could avoid prejudice here, and from the people she had talked to, it had sounded like Penny Haywood was the most kindhearted and openminded witch she would ever find. But apparently werewolves didn’t count when it came to giving chances, and her stomach sank with the realization. “Please,” she insisted. “I would’ve done it myself if I knew how. You don’t have to actually brew the potion if you would teach me.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Then the supplies! Just sell me the ingredients and I’ll figure it out.” Although that was far easier said than done. Her Potions skills were passable, but they were nowhere near proficient enough to tackle something as complicated as Wolfsbane without messing up catastrophically in the first few attempts. In this situation, that was something she didn’t have the time or money to afford, and Darius wasn’t much better than her. 

“I think you should leave my shop,” Penny said flatly.

“I’m begging you. You know it will be so much worse if she doesn’t drink it. The full moon is in two weeks. I can try to control her, but if I fail, people could die.”

Penny stared at her silently, her expression blank and pale. 

“Do you think I’m some kind of criminal?” Ava asked. “Well, I’m not, so you can tell your Animagus friend to stop hiding!”

There was a beat. Then the cat shifted, leaving another young witch sitting on the counter in its place. She was of similar height and age to Penny, although her face was rounder, and her build was broader than Penny’s dainty form. Ava was tempted to say she looked like a warrior, even if it didn’t quite fit. She was dressed all in black by way of a tunic with a blue gem set in the chest, and she wore a long-sleeved shirt and long skirt underneath it, with silver swirls accenting the fabric. She also adorned leather boots, fingerless gloves, and a similar potion belt to her companion’s. 

The witch brushed her wavy brown hair back from her light blue eyes, the latter of which were wide with surprise. “How’d you know?” she asked. 

Ava attempted a smile. “It’s always in the eyes,” she said. “That’s where the humanity lies.”

The other woman nodded, clearly impressed. She then put a hand on Penny’s shoulder and leaned close to her with a gentle murmur, “Pen, you’re not thinking clearly right now. We help anyone that needs it, remember? It sounds like someone needs it.”

Penny closed her eyes. “I know. It’s just—”

“I know. Why don’t you go upstairs? I can take care of it.”

“No, it will go faster if I do it.” She addressed the witch directly, not looking at Ava. “I’ve never made a Wolfsbane Potion before. It’s highly difficult, and the ingredients are rare and expensive. I’ll have to do an evaluation.”

“Do what you have to,” Ava said. “I’m prepared to pay any price.”

Penny nodded and disappeared through a back door. Ava let out a breath in relief. That had been a near disaster. She wasn’t out of the woods yet, but it was more progress than she had made in weeks. 

“I’m sorry,” the other witch said sincerely. “She doesn’t normally act like that. Werewolves are a bit of a touchy subject.”

“Bad experience?” Ava asked. 

“You could say. It’s not my story to tell, but there’s so much irony in your presence here that it’s not even funny.”

Ava cringed. Of all the places she could have picked, she had gone with the one that had a bad history with werewolves. Just her luck. “I know there are some really bad werewolves,” she said, “especially with current politics, but I promise you my friend’s not like that. She’s a victim of a terrible situation that wants a normal life. That’s it.”

The witch gave her a reassuring smile. “I believe you. You wouldn’t ask for the potion otherwise.” She hopped off the counter and held out a hand. “Lilianna Flores, but I go by Lily. I used to work in the creature trade. Customs and Transport.”

Ava shook her hand with a grin. “Nice to meet a kindred spirit.”

“Likewise. Why don’t we head upstairs for some tea, and we can talk things over up there.”

Lily led Ava through a door in the back of the shop, which opened into a short hallway, and then took her up a flight of stairs. They pushed through another door into the main room of a cheery little apartment. In contrast to the dim stone room downstairs, this area was all honey-colored wood and bright bumblebee hues of black and yellow. There were plants everywhere too—sitting on shelves, hanging on the wall, and dangling from the ceiling. The room had a warm and homey feel, and Ava relaxed a fraction in the new environment. 

Lily indicated for Ava to take a seat on the sofa while she moved into the kitchenette to prepare a pot of tea. “Do you mind if ask where you’re from?” she said.

Ava chuckled involuntarily. She always laughed when someone asked her that question because it never had a simple answer. “I was born in the southeastern US, but I’ve always moved around too much to really call any place home.”

“Because of your job?”

“Yep. My mom was a Magizoologist too, so my family never sat still, even when I was a kid. The longest I was in one place was when I was at Ilvermorny.”

“I can understand that. I had my other job for my first five years out of Hogwarts, and it felt like I was traveling every other week.”

“Is that why you stopped?”

“No, I loved it, but I was needed here.” Lily passed her a steaming teacup and sat down with her own in hand. “The real question is,” she said seriously, “what brings you here?”

Ava hesitated. That was also complicated. And sort of illegal. 

Lily looked her in the eyes, her expression kind yet solemn. “If you want our help, then you have to tell me. I’m not walking into anything blind.”

Ava looked into her cup but didn’t drink. A tea leaf floated up from the bottom and drifted back down. “You say that,” she said quietly, “but you ask me to blindly trust you?”

“Fair point. Tell me what you like then.”

A tawny cat strutted into the room and butted its head against Lily’s legs. She set her cup down on the table and pulled the cat into her arms, scratching the purring feline behind the ears. This one was just a cat. 

“You have experience with werewolves?” Ava asked. 

Lily nodded. “All kinds. I work with one on occasion.”

“Then you know the laws around them are horrible and backwards. It’s even worse in the States than it is here. Things were getting bad, so I had to get her out of there. At least for a bit.”

Lily raised her eyebrows. “You brought her here? Illegally?”

“I brought her here perfectly legally as a human. But...there is a slight chance she may be unregistered, yeah.”

“I don’t blame you,” Lily said slowly. “Or her, but this may not be the best place to be right now. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but You-Know-Who is back, and he’s been swaying the werewolves to his side. Britain is not a safe place, especially for your friend.”

“I’m well aware,” Ava replied. “Believe me, I don’t want to be here long either. The original plan had been to apply for Dragonologist positions in Romania and then head straight there when we got the jobs. But Wolfsbane Potion has become impossible to get in the States, and when we ran out, we had to make our trip to Europe a lot sooner than planned. I had hoped to find some here, but it’s been more than a little difficult.”

Lily gave her another reassuring smile. “Well, Penny and I can help you with that part at least.”

Ava matched her smile with a grateful one. “Thank you.”

“Is your friend safe?”

“Yes, for now. She’s in an isolated location, just in case.”

“Good. If you or she need anything else, just let me know.”

The door opened, and the cat squirmed out of Lily’s arms and bounded over to Penny with happy meows. The young potioneer scooped it up and carried it with her as she joined them, absentmindedly stroking its fur. Ava caught Lily rolling her eyes. 

“Is everything alright?” Penny asked. 

“I think so,” Lily said. “What about with you?”

“Well, I should be able to brew the potion...”

Ava’s breath caught. There was a “but” coming.

“...but I checked the stores. We don’t have all the ingredients, and the ones we’re missing are extremely hard to find. Tracking them down in a week may be impossible.” She paused and looked directly at Ava. “I also told you I’ve never made a potion like this before. If I mess up, your friend could die.”

Ava already knew that, but hearing it said aloud dragged claws over her heart. “We’ve talked it over plenty of times,” she said as calmly as possible. “She’s fully aware of the risks.” In the end, it came down to protecting Diana or protecting the lives of those she might kill, and Diana’s choice had always been clear. Ava had tried arguing with her in the past, but now she knew it was a fight she would never win. She had the scars to prove it. “Not to put pressure on you or anything,” she continued with half-hearted humor, “but you’re our last resort.”

Penny was silent for a moment, her face impassive. Then she nodded slowly, a spark flickering behind her eyes. “Okay. I’ll do what I can. Lily, if I give you a list of what we need, can you get it to Jae?”

Lily grinned. “Definitely. It’ll cost more than a few favors, but he’ll make it happen.”

“If you want, I can pay upfront,” Ava offered. That was policy in most apothecaries and potion shops. 

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but Penny cut her off. “No, not in this case,” she said seriously. “You will only pay when you have a properly brewed potion in your hand. Not before.” The potioneer’s sudden intensity took Ava by surprise. It was like someone had flipped a switch and replaced her with a different person, one that was more certain and determined. 

“We’ll send you an owl when we have the ingredients,” Lily said. “I assume you’re staying at the Three Broomsticks?”

“Uh, yes,” Ava replied with more uncertainty than she would have liked. She made a mental note to get a room at the inn before she seemed any more suspicious than she already was. 

“It’s a plan then,” Lily declared. “We have a week to brew the potion and two weeks to come up with a backup plan if we fail. Either way, we’ll figure something out.”

“I’m going to make sure everything else is prepared,” Penny said, handing the cat back to Lily. “You know where to find me.” She hurried back out the door. 

Lily’s grin widened after she left the apartment. “You gave her a challenge and a time limit,” she told Ava. “This is great.”

“It is?”

“Pen does her best work under pressure. If anyone can make your potion, she can.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Ava found her optimism encouraging, but as much as she wanted to believe everything would be okay, her past experiences with reality kept her in check. She would only relax when the moon was waning, preferably with Diana healthy and safe. In the meantime, she would do her best to prepare for every outcome possible, but if something went wrong, she doubted that it would be enough. 

As quickly as she could without obviously rushing, she finished her tea with Lily and left the shop with the assurance that she would be waiting nearby. The bell jingled once again as she pushed through the door into the hot summer day, and she had to pause to shield her eyes from the blinding sun. Something moved in the corner of her eye, and she turned to see a large dog climb to its feet from where it had been lounging against the building. It had the appearance of a shaggy greyhound with a long reddish-brown coat, and it looked at her expectantly with its blue-green eyes. 

“Come on,” she told him. In other words,  _ Not here. _

She strolled casually down the street, as if simply taking in the sight of the quaint shops and houses of Hogsmeade, while the borzoi trotted by her heels. What she was really doing, however, was scanning for a gap in passersby, and she found one about a block before she reached the inn. She took the opportunity to duck into a narrow alley between buildings, and the borzoi followed her. 

In the scarce cover of the shadows, he shifted, and within seconds Darius towered over her, all legs and lean muscle just like his Animagus form. He leaned back against the brick wall and crossed his arms over his chest, giving her a serious look. “You really need to work on being discrete,” he said. 

She rolled her eyes. “Like you could’ve done any better. How much did you hear?”

“Nothing after you went upstairs. So?”

“They’ll do it, but they have to get more ingredients. It’ll be close.”

“Can they be trusted?”

“I like to think so,” she said, “but I don’t know. I’m going to wait at one of the local inns, but you and Di should stay out of sight, just in case.” If Aurors came after them, it would be easier for them to get away if Ava was the only one being chased. She also had the best chance of slipping away unnoticed, which was the whole reason she had been tasked with getting the potion in the first place, but even though Darius knew that, he clearly wasn’t happy about it.  

“I’m not going to sit completely still,” he informed her grumpily. 

“Fine,” she said, knowing she couldn’t control him. “But you still need to keep a close eye on Di. This is going to be a tough one for her.”

“You don’t need to tell me,” he sighed. 

She shoved his shoulder, just hard enough to make him shift his feet. “Then stop wasting time talking to me. Get back to her!”

His lips pulled back in a remarkably canine snarl, but he shook his head when she flashed him a playful smile. “You’re a pain,” he said, but his shell was cracking. Something in his face changed, and before she could identify it, he briefly and awkwardly hugged her. “Be careful,” he murmured in her ear.  

“You too,” she said, embracing him back. 

He gave her one last serious look before he Disapparated, leaving her alone in the alley, and she struggled to focus her thoughts on the task at hand. She had to rent a room at the Three Broomsticks so she could get the potion when it was ready. That was the next step, and there was no point in worrying about anything else until it was over with. 

But as she continued down the street, her boots clunking softly on the cobblestone beneath them, a thought surfaced that she had been trying to avoid. Darius didn’t hug her often, and when he did, it was usually for one of two reasons: she was mad at him...or he thought he wasn’t going to see her again for a long time. 


	2. Werewolves and Animagi

Penny stayed in the brewing room so long after Avalon had left that Lily began to wonder if she had fallen in a cauldron. She left the sales counter, which she had been manning since the departure of their unexpected foreign guest, and went into the back in search of the missing shop owner. The windowless stone room that was the brewing room was even dimmer and cooler than the main part of the shop, and normally it was less cluttered too. On an average day, the many tables that held cauldrons of every shape, size, and material were kept spotless while the recipes and ingredients for the potions in-progress were neatly prepared and organized. 

Today was not an average day. Open-mouthed books were haphazardly scattered across the tables, and what looked like half the ingredients from the storeroom were seemingly piled at random. Penny hunched over the preparation table, the largest in the room, and aggressively pulverized an unknown substance with a mortar and pestle. 

“Pen?” Lily uttered, uncertain what to say. Asking her if she was alright seemed like a stupid question. 

“The list is right in front of you,” Penny said without looking up from her task. 

Lily glanced down at the table nearest to her and picked up the piece of parchment sitting on it. She skimmed over the ingredients. “Moonstone?” she read aloud. “Ouch.” Moonstone had always been a difficult to acquire ingredient, but there had been so much demand for it lately that it was now near impossible to find. They had used the last of theirs in a large batch of Draught of Peace a month ago and had been unable to get any more. 

“Keep reading,” Penny said. 

Lily did and had to repress a wave of anxiety. Moonstone was one of the  _ easiest _ ingredients they had to find. “There’s no point worrying until we hear back from Jae,” she said, for her own reassurance as well as Penny’s. “If anyone can get us what we need, he can.”

“I know.” Penny still didn’t look up. 

Lily waited to see if she would speak up on her own, but when the silence stretched, she decided to press instead. “What’s on your mind?”

The pestle slowed to a gradual stop in Penny’s hand, and she let it roll from her fingers with a sigh. She turned her back to the table and braced against it, as if she was preparing for an attack. “I don’t like this,” she said. “You know that.”

“I do.”

“Even if somehow we do manage to pull this off, we don’t know if we can trust them. We know nothing about them...”

“I’m aware, but we can’t refuse to help because of a chance. You know that.”

“I do. What do you think I’m doing?”

Lily gave her a knowing look. “Fending off a panic attack because you’re overthinking everything that can go wrong.”

Penny crossed her arms defensively. “Don’t read my mind.”

“I didn’t. I’ve known you for thirteen years.”

“Five of those don’t really count.”

Now Lily crossed her arms. “That’s a little below the potion belt, don’t you think?”

Penny winced, appearing genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair,” she said. “It’s just...waiting makes it worse. It always makes it so much worse.”

Lily knew she was talking about her anxiety. She had lost track of the amount of times over the years that her friend had thrown herself into work to escape it and had become ill as a result. It was unlikely she could do that now. Business had been slow that week, and they were stuck waiting on ingredients. But idleness came with its own set of complications. 

“How about this?” Lily said. “I’ll promise to be careful if you promise not to overwork yourself.”

“That’ll never happen, but okay.”

Lily wasn’t sure what part of her statement she was referring to, but didn’t bother to question it when Penny eased her concern with a smile. “Fine, fine,” she mock sighed. “I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be up front, writing letters and attending our invisible customers.”

“Don’t joke,” Penny laughed. “Knowing you, we’ll have an invisibility problem next.”

“Merlin forbid.”

Lily returned to the front of the shop, which was unsurprisingly still empty, and hopped up to sit cross-legged on the main counter. There was a chair in the corner for when things were slow, like they were now, but she had always possessed the odd inclination to sit anywhere but in a chair. Similarly, Penny teased her about choosing to lie on the floor of her room rather than the bed, but she found it calming. It was her way of clearing her head to think about things in a fresh way. 

The shop remained quiet for a long while as she drafted her letter to Jae, and she tried to be as discreet as possible in her wording in case the owl was intercepted—something that had been happening too often lately. She took the silence as a blessing though. With fewer people requesting potions due to the Moonstone shortage and with school out of session there was a smaller chance someone would get hurt...whatever happened next. 

“Lilianna Flores,” a masculine voice commanded suddenly, “by order of—”

She gasped and recoiled so quickly from the figure that had materialized within a meter of her that she fell backwards—off the counter. By pure instinct, she shifted into her cat form and twisted her body to land on her feet at the last second, and as she did so, she caught a whiff of a very familiar scent. Furious, she launched herself back onto the counter, puffed up her fur, bared her teeth, and hissed. 

The Auror laughed. “They’re not wrong!” he exclaimed. “Cats really do land on their feet!” And he laughed harder. 

“Talbott Winger!” she snarled after shifting back. “I swear to Merlin, don’t do that!”

“Believe me,” Talbott chuckled, “I hadn’t been planning on that reaction. I was going to tell you you’re under arrest, but that...that was so much better.”

“How the hell did you get in here? There’s a bell on the door and a charm on the room.”

He smirked. “I have my ways. I told you I passed my Stealth and Tracking Exam with flying colors.”

“If that’s a bird pun, I will scratch you,” she threatened, but she was already relaxing as the adrenaline left her system. 

“And I thought I was supposed to be the dark one.” He gave her a rare smile. “It’s good to see you, Lily.”

She didn’t want to reveal that she had forgiven him so soon, but she couldn’t help it. She hadn’t seen him in months, and he didn’t openly display his emotions that often. So, she allowed herself to relax fully when she said, “You too. And look at you, looking like a proper Auror.”

He wore a brown leather trench coat, which was modified to include a hood, and it was unbuttoned to show the wand sheath strapped to his thigh. He also had on a casual black waistcoat and trousers, as well as similar leather gloves and boots. The white shirt peaking out from beneath his waistcoat reminded her of the mottled plumage of his juvenile Animagus form, and she had to fight the urge to laugh. He had likely lost all of his white feathers by now. 

“So do you,” he said. “You always dress like you’re ready to battle a dragon, not brew a potion.”

“Have you ever tried to brew ten batches of the Draught of Peace at once? Battling a dragon is almost easier.” And she had the good fortune to have done both. 

“And writing a letter to Jae Kim, I see,” he noted, his eyes only briefly darting to the parchment by her hand. He gave her a knowing look. “What trouble have you gotten yourself into now?”

She didn’t have a chance to defend herself before Talbott’s attention was pulled away by Penny’s cheerful cry of, “Oh! I thought I heard your voice!” so she took the opportunity to fold the unfinished letter and tuck it in her robes while he wasn’t watching. Although, knowing Talbott, he had probably noticed anyway. 

“Can I hug you?” Penny asked as she walked over. He nodded, and she warmly embraced him, although she might as well as been hugging one of the dummies they used for target practice, he stood there so stiffly. But neither looked like they minded the arrangement, and she was still cheerful when she broke away to ask, “What brings you to town?”

“Official business, unfortunately,” he said. “And something best spoken about elsewhere. Do you mind closing up early?”

With a single flick of her wand, Penny locked the door and turned the sign from “Open” to “Closed,” and the three of them moved upstairs into the flat to gather around the honey-colored dining table. Two private meetings in one day. What were the odds?

With Lily, fairly high.

Once seated, Talbott pulled out a folder that had been tucked in his coat and laid it on the table for them to see. “Officially, I’m not supposed to show anyone this,” he said, “but you two are the local Order members, so I feel like you should know. Honestly, though, I doubt anything will come of it.”

“Something we should be worried about?” Penny asked.

“Doubtful, but it never hurts to be cautious.” Talbott opened the folder and laid out photos of two witches and one wizard. All of them were young, likely in their early twenties. One of the witches had thick black hair, dark brown eyes, and caramel skin, while the other witch and the wizard both had chestnut hair, blue-green eyes, and a smattering of freckles. Lily choked back a gasp, and she noticed Penny’s mouth tighten. One of the photos was of Avalon.

“Ten days ago,” Talbott continued, giving no indication if he had noticed their reactions, “two American witches and one wizard entered the country. Avalon Brooks, Darius Brooks, and Diana Otxoa. They’re a close-knit team of Magizoologists, which under normal circumstances wouldn’t draw any attention. However, the Brooks siblings are both registered Animagi, and that’s something that never goes unnoticed.”

Avalon was an Animagus? No wonder she had been able to identify Lily; she had been looking at someone with her very same abilities. 

“What kind?” she asked, unable to suppress her curiosity.

Talbott gave her a hard-to-read look. “Darius Brooks is a dog, a borzoi. Avalon Brooks is an osprey. They registered fairly young, while they were still in Ilvermorny. Sound familiar?”

Lily gave a small smile. She had first transformed and registered when she was thirteen. Talbott had first transformed several years earlier, but he hadn’t registered until it had been necessary in order to take a job with the Ministry. Nothing about the Brooks’ situation stood out to her, especially since their abilities were fitting for their line of work.

“No, it doesn’t stand out to me either,” he said, correctly guessing her thoughts. “But I’ve been tasked with keeping an eye on them since apparently I have the most ‘expertise.’” He made air quotes. 

She scoffed. “Surely the Ministry has more important things to focus on.” Like finding and defeating You-Know-Who for example.

“This is mostly at MACUSA’s insistence. The Brooks are half-bloods, which is frowned upon in American families, not to mention borderline illegal. Otxoa is a pureblood but is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. They’re not the most popular group of people.”

Penny and Lily exchanged a glance. Both of them could relate to that to different degrees—Penny being a half-blood and Lily being a pureblood from a supposed mad family. At least Penny had always been popular. A reputation of madness was hard to get rid of. 

“Although,” Talbott added, “the Ministry is complying for another reason that I do agree is odd. I don’t want to worry you, especially you, Penny, but like I said, it never hurts to be cautious.”

Penny shifted uncomfortably and managed to offer a small, curious, “Oh?” Lily too had to struggle to maintain her composure. She had a good idea of what was coming next. 

“I don’t know what it means,” he said, “but our three guests have a history of being involved with werewolf attacks.”

Wait,  _ attacks?  _ Lily kept her focus on Talbott, but she could feel Penny’s alarmed gaze from beside her as she attempted to catch her eye. “You’ll need to be more specific,” Lily said.

He nodded, but she wasn’t sure at what. “I can try, but the details are scarce. Records show that they have been present during werewolf sightings on more than one occasion. Most recently, they were present when a young wizard was killed, and all three of them were injured but not bitten. Avalon Brooks was also attacked and hospitalized after another incident, but again it looks like she wasn’t bitten. They’re all unusually lucky. That sound familiar too?”

There was a fine line between being a trouble magnet and being someone that went looking for trouble. Lily knew because she walked that line, which was something Talbott was fully aware of. “What do you think?” she asked him. 

He met her eyes impassively. “About a group of Magizoologists chasing after werewolves? It’s stupid but not surprising. The Ministry’s concerned because of the way You-Know-Who has been recruiting the werewolves, but I’m not really interested in the actions of a bunch of American tourists.”

“Scientists,” she corrected, despite knowing he was teasing her.

“Scientists,” he amended with amusement. “What about you? I don’t suppose you’ve seen any of our visitors?”

That question was a trap, and she knew it. Her eyes slid to the picture of the chestnut-haired, light-eyed witch. “Her,” she said, pointing. “She came in this morning. Gave only her first name and asked for basic supplies and potions—Murtlap Essence, Wiggenweld Potion, Wideye Potion—nothing special.”

Talbott’s expression remained stoic. “Is that right, Penny?”

“That’s right,” Penny said.

“Well, then maybe it is nothing.” He smiled mysteriously. “I’ll be in town for as long as they are, so with luck, you’ll be seeing a lot of me. I get the feeling they’re not the only ones I need to keep an eye on.” Tucking the folder back into his coat, he stood up and gave them a cordial nod. “I should get back to work.”

Penny stood up too and gave him another awkward hug. “Take care.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, addressing her but looking at Lily. “I’m not the one that needs to be careful.”

Once he was gone, Lily rested her chin on her interlocked fingers and stared out the window, watching as the shadow of a large bird passed over the glass. Things had just gotten a lot more complicated. 

“Lily,” Penny said sharply. 

“This doesn’t change anything,” Lily responded calmly. “The plan stays the same.”

“Someone died.”

“We don’t know the full story.”

“Exactly. What if Avalon is a werewolf?”

“That still doesn’t change anything.”

“It means she lied.”

“It means she protected herself.”

Penny crossed her arms. “I don’t like this.”

“So you said,” Lily retorted and then instantly regretted it when Penny flinched. She took a breath and found herself echoing Penny’s words from earlier: “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

“No, you’re right,” Penny said, anxiously twisting one of her braids around her fingers. “We always give people the benefit of the doubt. I always give people the benefit of the doubt. Oh, Merlin, Lilianna…” she breathed.

“I know.”

No matter what Lily said, she couldn’t ignore the fact that someone had been killed, whether by this werewolf or a related one, and that Talbott had mentioned attacks, plural. The question remained if they had been intentional, but regardless of the answer, they painted a grim picture of their situation. It was difficult to be as idealistic now. Hogsmeade, and everyone in it, was in serious danger, meaning they had to come up with that Wolfsbane Potion. Fast. 

Reaching out from her seat, she grabbed Penny’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly, and Penny squeezed her hand back, conveying the panic she had been keeping just below the surface. Lily would do anything to save her friend from having to witness someone else die, even if it meant facing the werewolf herself. 

“It defeats the purpose if you get yourself killed,” Penny said, guessing her thoughts as easily as Talbott had. 

“I won’t. I promise.”


	3. Like a Hawk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor edit made to Talbott's appearance in the last chapter. He's still wearing a white shirt, but he's now wearing a black waistcoat/vest over it. Also corrected the statement about his Animagus form having a white chest. He had a white chest and a completely yellow beak when he first changed form in the game, but golden eagles have neither. They corrected it by "Birds of a Feather" where he is shown with all brown feathers and darker coloration on his beak.

Perched one roof over from the Cauldron, Ava watched through the window overlooking the table as Penny Haywood and Lilianna Flores talked with the Ministry official. She had first spotted him outside the Three Broomsticks, and it had been his clothes that had caught her attention. He was dressed more like he was ready for a duel than for a stroll through town, so instantly suspicious, she had taken off through the window of her room to follow him, making sure to maintain as much distance as her heightened eyesight would allow. Between his recognizable outfit, sleek hair, and tan skin, he should have been easy to keep sight of, but he moved like a hunter, smoothly and silently. It was only by an unfortunately accurate guess that she was able to follow him to his destination: The Scarlett Cauldron. When she watched him lay out the pictures of her and her team for the potioneers to see, she had no doubt; he was an Auror, and he had tracked them to Hogsmeade.

How and why though? Was Darius right and she really did need to work on being discrete, or had someone contacted the Ministry? But surely Penny and Lily hadn’t…

Ava felt her feathers puff up as Lily pointed to her picture and Penny nodded in agreement. They were giving her up to the Auror. And why was she surprised? She shouldn’t have assumed that a couple of strangers would protect her, especially not for the sake of a werewolf. 

When she saw the Auror leave the apartment, she took off before he could see her. If he had her information, then he had the full description of her Animagus form too. Beating her wings, she gained altitude and glided until she reached the edge of the nearby forest. There she dove into the cover of the trees and shifted, Apparating before her feet touched the ground. 

When she reappeared, it was in the room of a derelict old building. The windows were boarded up, paper was peeling off the moldy walls, the wood floor was dirty, scratched, and stained, and all the furniture was smashed, with the exception of a semi-intact four-poster bed. It was on that bed that Diana and Darius both sat with a No-Maj card game between them, and they hopped to their feet at her arrival. 

“What is it?” Darius asked, already on alert. 

“We have a problem,” she said. “Slight, slight problem.” She told them what she had seen. 

Darius swore. “I knew we couldn’t trust them. We have to leave.”

“Where would we go? He’s following us.”

“The forest, as far in as we can go. We can take our chances with the creatures. We know how to deal with them. An Auror doesn’t.”

She shook her head. “That’s too risky. We’re hidden well enough here.”

They had heard from the locals that the shack they were in was supposedly haunted, so naturally they had decided that it was the perfect hiding spot. Upon trying to break into it, however, they had discovered that the walls, windows, and doors were magically reinforced, making them impossible to break or open. With that being said, Apparition was still possible, so after confirming that the place was completely abandoned, albeit dirty and trashed, they cleaned it up to the best of their abilities and set up base. They couldn’t have found a better spot to hide a werewolf. 

Diana had her arms wrapped around herself, her expression anxious. “You really think they betrayed us?” she asked. “There’s no chance of getting the potion?”

“I don’t know,” Ava said. “I only know what it looked like.” She didn’t want to believe that Penny and Lily had reported them, but she didn’t know how else to explain what she saw.

“We can’t risk it now,” Darius said. “I’d rather deal with you changing than have one of us get arrested.”

“I’d beg to differ,” Diana exclaimed. “Ava can stay here. I’ll go talk to them.”

“No,” Ava and Darius said simultaneously.

“If you get arrested and they deport you,” Darius added, “you will be given the death penalty.”

“And I would deserve it, wouldn’t I?” Diana said darkly.

“No,” Ava said sharply. “Darius and I have a better chance. Our visas are valid, and technically they don’t have proof that we’ve done anything wrong. As long as you stay hidden, we should be fine.”

“You think they don’t have proof,” Darius pointed out. 

“Di’s right though. She needs that potion. I can go back and reassess the situation—”

“No,” Darius and Diana said.

“Yes,” Ava insisted. “They already know I’m in town, and I have the best ability to escape. We’ve been over this.”

“We’ve been over how dangerous it is,” Diana said. “You’re not risking yourself because of me.”

“I already have!” Ava snapped. They’d had this conversation a million times over the course of a decade, and that was no exaggeration. It was also no exaggeration to say she was sick of it, so it wasn’t completely fair when she said, “If you really don’t want another incident, then you’ll let me get that potion.”

Both Diana and Darius opened their mouths, clearly ready to disagree, so she cut them off with a shout of, “No! For the love of Merlin, stop arguing and sit tight! Both of you!”

Diana scowled, not about to let it go, but unexpectedly Darius laughed. They stared at him in confusion. “Point for Ava,” he said in amusement. “She was the first to snap.” Then Diana laughed too. 

Ava let out a breath, calming down. She wasn’t angry, just stressed, but they were always stressed at this time of the month. Several years ago, to prevent the arguments that kept breaking out, they had devised a point system. The first person to snap got a point, and whoever had the least amount of points after the full moon was the winner. As an extra incentive, the losers had to do or buy something for the winner, and this month the stakes were higher than ever: candy at the local shop, Honeydukes. Half a dozen people had raved about it to Ava since she’d arrived in town, so it seemed like a fitting reward—if they made it through this moon, that is.  

“Can we please agree that nothing we decide to do will ever be safe?” she asked. 

“Fine,” Diana sighed.

“That’s the truth,” Darius said.

“So can we agree to stick to the plan for now?” Ava pressed.

“No,” her friends said again, but their faces said they weren’t going to stop her. 

“Good grief,” she muttered. 

Once she convinced Darius not to follow her, and once she convinced Diana to stop scowling at her, she Apparated to the edge of town, the edge opposite from the shack, and walked back toward the inn. If someone was following her, then hopefully they wouldn’t be able to figure out where she had come from. 

Maybe it was because she was expecting someone to be watching her, or maybe it was because she did sense something odd, but as she was passing by a dilapidated pub with opaquely dirty windows, she felt the urge to look up. She acted on it, and startled when she did so. Right above her, perched on the sign of a severed boar’s head, was a golden eagle. It stared down at her with its sharp brown eyes, maintaining perfect balance on the rotting, unstable wood with the grip of its massive talons. 

She took a deep breath, slowing her heart rate, and kept walking. After a few seconds, she heard it—the faint, yet familiar beat of wings, and then nothing. She glanced back. The bird was gone, as in vanished. There wasn’t a speck in the sky to be seen. 

She was being watched all right, but not by your average human. 

Then again, neither was she. 


	4. Routine Interrogation

Talbott shouldn’t have made eye contact with the American witch. He shouldn’t have let himself be  _ seen  _ by the American witch. Considering that he had just been bragging to Lily about passing Stealth and Tracking, it had been a very careless move on his part. He didn’t know for certain if she had seen him for what he was; finding a large raptor a meter from your head would startle most people, but he still didn’t like how she had reacted. 

In his defense, he wasn’t accustomed to being around other Animagi that often. Since his mother had died, he had only come to know Lily and Professor McGonagall, and he had never needed to spy on them. Well, he had never spied on McGonagall. Being friends with Lily was a much more complicated and high risk endeavor—as she was choosing to demonstrate yet again. In the eleven years that he had known her, she was still as much of a troublemaker as she had been on the day they’d met. She and Penny were up to something, and he would bet all his Galleons that it had to do with their unexpected visitors, two of which had mysteriously disappeared less than a week ago. If his friends really were involved, then he needed to figure out what was going on quickly, before someone did something stupid.

And by someone, he meant Lily. 

After waiting an appropriate amount of time, he made his way to the Three Broomsticks on foot. Normally he preferred a more subtle approach, spying on his targets from a distance, but that had already gone out the window, especially since he was staying at the same inn as one of his suspects. He had tried renting a room at the Hog’s Head Inn, but Aberforth Dumbledore had refused on account of him scaring away the other patrons. It was probably better if he didn’t know what went on in that pub anyway. 

“She’s not going to start trouble, is she?” Madam Rosmerta questioned when he asked for the witch’s room number. 

“I don’t know,” he said. “Why? Does it look like she will?”

“No. She seems like a sweet girl. Quiet, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

“It’s probably nothing,” he lied smoothly, “but just in case, don’t mention this to anyone.”

Rosmerta didn’t look like she believed him; she had seen too much nonsense in her life for that, but she still said, “Upstairs, second room on the right. And don’t you start trouble either. Aurors have brought me enough grief.”

Killing his urge to smile, which would not have been reassuring, he thanked her and wove through the typically thick crowd of patrons to the stairs. On the second floor, the overwhelming chatter dulled to a background murmur, and he paused before the door to focus his senses. He knocked and then waited, cocking his head to listen carefully. Footsteps hesitantly approached the door from the other side, but it remained shut.

“Who is it?” a young female voice called, muffled through the wood.

“Avalon Brooks?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Talbott Winger from the Auror Office. I need to ask you a few questions.”

The footsteps retreated from the door, moving toward the opposite wall.  _ The window.  _ Putting one hand on the doorknob and the other on his wand, he braced himself for the pop of Apparition or the flutter of wings and prepared to burst in at the first sign of either. But instead the voice responded with, “You can come in. It’s open.”

Quickly composing himself but leaving his wand sheath unfastened, he entered the small room. Avalon Brooks stood by the open window with her hands passively by her sides, although her expression was anxious. She was shorter than he had expected, barely clearing a meter and a half, and unlike in her photo, her long chestnut hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She wore some kind of dark gray combat tunic or long waistcoat with leather spaulders and boots to match. Multiple black belts looped around her waist, and on them hung her wand and several small pouches and potion vials. He would have assumed her to be an Auror or a duelist if he hadn’t known her true profession, but considering the danger Magizoologists got themselves into, he wasn’t surprised. Now it was just a matter of seeing if she was causing that danger rather than throwing herself into it. 

“Have I done something wrong?” she asked.

“No, this is simply routine,” he said, offering up the lie he had prepared ahead of time. “With the recent political developments, the Ministry of Magic has started running checks on everyone that enters the country. I’m sure you can understand.”

Her eyes widened. “You think I’m working with You-Know-Who?”

“Personally, I do not, so as long as you answer my questions, we can be done here and I can be on my way.” That too was only a half-truth. He didn’t believe she was working with You-Know-Who, but he did believe she was hiding something. 

She gestured at a small wooden chair, the only one in the room, and when he took it, she sat down on the bed, holding herself with the ridgedness that came with being afraid to make a wrong move.

“Tell me, why would a Magizoologist come to a country on the verge of war?”

She had a response prepared. “Just to stock up. My team ran out of healing supplies not too long ago, so I’m waiting while the local shop orders some more. Then it’s off to Romania to see about a Dragonologist position. We’re only passing through.”

“So you decided to come to a small village in the middle of nowhere instead of a well-supplied city like London?”

Her mouth tightened, like it wanted to pull into a grimace. “That’s right,” she said. “The creature reserve next to Hogwarts is legendary. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit.”

“You’re traveling with two others, Diana Otxoa and Darius Brooks. Where are they?”

“Diana is ill,” she said slowly, failing to hold eye contact. “She went to stay with a friend in London while she recovers.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t give me an address.” That was a likely story. Not. 

“And your brother?”

“Off in the woods somewhere. He heard about the wolfpack and wanted to go join them for a few days. He’ll be back when he gets bored.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You let your younger brother go run with wolves, by himself, for a few days? Without knowing exactly where he is?”

“He’s not by himself. He’s with the wolves,” she said earnestly. 

He didn’t want to scare her off, but this was ridiculous. “And you honestly expect me to believe this?” he asked. 

She frowned. “You? Yes. Other people, no.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

For the first time in their conversation, she looked him directly in the eye without hesitation and asked, “Do you like birds, Mr. Winger?”

His heart rate spiked as the question unsettled him, and he had to fight the unexpected instinct to lower his gaze. She knew. She had seen him in his Animagus form and now she knew. But surely no one short of a Legilimens was that perceptive. 

Well, he was that perceptive, but that was beside the point. 

She continued, appearing surprisingly calm. “I like birds. They’re refreshing to be around. People can be so complicated sometimes, it’s stressful, but I find that around birds I’m not as stressed. It’s the same way with Darius. He gets along with most animals, but he does especially well with dogs and wolves. Running with wolves keeps him calm, just like flying with birds keeps me calm. I’m sure you can understand.”

“Ms. Brooks,” he said, attempting to regain control of the conversation even though he understood completely, “I need to know where your companions are.”

“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

_ Can’t or won’t?  _ he thought and then decided to try a new approach. He did his best to look concerned. “I’m asking for their own good. These are dangerous times, not to mention that there are werewolves in this forest.”

She shook her head, not fooled. “That’s a myth. It’s a pack of werewolf cubs, not werewolves. They’re completely harmless.” Right...Magizoologist. 

He ran with it anyway. “I’m sure you would know that, considering your history with werewolves.”

As if he had flipped a switch, her shoulders slid back, her chin raised, and her chest inflated, exactly like a bird puffs out its feathers in preparation for a fight. “What is that supposed to mean?” she asked coldly. 

“Your team has had an impressive amount of run-ins with werewolves over the years. It’s a miracle any of you are still alive.”

“I won’t deny that,” she said. “If you’re accusing me of seeking out werewolves, then consider me guilty.”

“Care to explain?”

She looked faintly annoyed when she said, “Being a Magizoologist means multiple things. It means learning about and protecting creatures, educating people about them, and at times, protecting people from them. I protect people from werewolves because it is my job, in the same way protecting people from Dark Wizards is yours. Is that really so surprising?”

“I suppose you can’t always protect everyone,” he replied. The statement was intended to provoke her. The way a person behaved when they were on the defensive revealed a lot about them, and if he was lucky, even illuminated a few cracks. At least, that was his justification for making such a huge mistake.

Shock and horror shot across her features, and she braced her palms flat against the bed, as if she was preparing to jump to her feet—or lunge at him, but she restrained herself. Although, by the way her voice shook, not by much. “Yes, I can’t protect everyone,” she said darkly. “Thank you for pointing that out.”

“That wasn’t my intention,” he backpedalled. 

She glared at him. “And just what was your intention, Mr. Winger? Because it sounds like you are accusing me of being so pro-werewolf that I would let a man die.”

Okay, so maybe it sounded horrible when she put it like that, but it was too late for him to back out now. “The wizard that died was a known werewolf hunter, and you just said it’s your job to protect creatures…”

“Unbelievable.”

“...and ‘pro-werewolf’ is not a popular viewpoint, especially among people that have been attacked.”

“Oh, okay, I see,” she said sardonically. “You’re accusing  _ me  _ of being a werewolf now. Do you want proof that I haven’t been bitten, is that it?”

“Are you willing to offer it?”

She continued to stare at him directly as she said in complete seriousness, “I will take all my clothes off right now if it will put this matter to rest.”

That hadn’t been the response he had been expecting, and he felt his cheeks heat. “Uh, no, that’s fine.”

Her lips twitched, showing a hint of satisfaction. “Some  _ routine  _ interrogation this is,” she said. “Can I see a badge?” He held it up for her to see, and she grunted in acknowledgement. “Huh. For a country ‘on the verge of war,’ you guys have some really skewed priorities. Do you have a warrant?”

“Uh, no.”

“Then if you want to continue to harass me, you’ll have to get one.” She stood up and gestured to the door. “I think this visit is over.”

He stood up as well but did not exit. “I’ll leave your room, but until I know where your companions are, I will not be leaving this town.”

She scowled. “Get out. Now.”

He nodded calmly, and with a polite, “Good evening, Ms. Brooks,” he walked out. 

He didn’t go far though. He  _ couldn’t  _ go far; his own room was only a few doors down from hers, and when he entered it, he felt a sudden desire to slam his head down on the desk. He didn’t act on it, of course, but it was there. 

The sweet, quiet girl that Rosmerta had mentioned had just kicked him out—not that he blamed her. He had practically accused her of murder and lycanthropy, and that was after opening with the brief implication of terrorism. He didn’t deny that it was possible that she was a murderer or a terrorist, but he still doubted it. Accusing her had simply been the fastest and most direct way to get a revealing reaction, and her reaction had revealed enough to answer his initial question. When it came to determining if she was here to cause trouble or find it, it would appear that she was here to find it. Now the question was, what was she here to find?

Except she had already answered it. Avalon Brooks had admitted to seeking out werewolves. She hadn’t meant in Hogsmeade when she had responded, but why else would she be in town? If he had to bet, her companions were probably out looking for the werewolf, or hiding it if they had found it. That just left Penny’s and Lily’s involvement…

Penny. No, he had to be wrong. Penny would never get involved with werewolves; she did everything in her power to avoid them. Lily would never let her get dragged into a situation like this. His former housemate had more sense than that. 

Talbott sat down at the desk and massaged his temples. He could guess all he liked, but he still didn’t know exactly what was going on. Not to mention that it was day one, and he had already burned one of his bridges. There was a reason he hated taking the direct approach. Brooks had been right: birds were less complicated and stressful than people. 

He wouldn’t confront his friends just yet. He trusted them enough to respect their decision to keep the situation a secret from him, at least for now, but there was no reason for him to place that same trust in Brooks. Until he located her team and learned what they felt compelled to hide from an  _ Auror,  _ he would be keeping a very close eye on her in the coming days. And even if there was some noble intention behind it all, if worse came to worst, he would not hesitate to put the lives of his friends first. 


	5. Warning

The presence of the Auror Talbott Winger was both better and worse than Ava had expected. Better because she surprisingly had been right when she had said earlier that he had no reason to arrest her, not to mention that he had no idea where her friends were hidden. But it was worse because he knew about the werewolf hunter’s death. She had hoped MACUSA wouldn’t have made the connection so soon, but someone had passed that information along to the Ministry of Magic. Now a British Auror was watching her like a hawk. 

Or make that an eagle. 

He really was everywhere, as she came to learn over the next few days, and avoiding him became impossible, especially since he was staying in the same building as her. When she went downstairs for meals or to talk with the innkeeper, he was there, watching her from across the room with his sharp brown eyes, although he never attempted to interrogate her again. Part of her was relieved, but mostly this terrified her more. She didn’t dare visit Darius and Diana, but she had to force herself to leave the inn to at least give the appearance that she was doing more than waiting. Sometimes she took walks through town, while other times she ventured out to the creature reserve, and he was always there too.

She was certain it was him. Animagi didn’t always physically resemble their animal forms—she didn’t and neither did Lily—but with his sleek yet feathery hair and aquiline nose, he bore a remarkable resemblance to an eagle. And it was an eagle that followed her around outside of the inn. It perched on nearby rooftops while she browsed through shops and hovered high overhead while she coaxed a timid porlock to come closer. It was like he wasn’t trying to be subtle about stalking her, but maybe that was the point. She didn’t know why that would be, though, because she would never lead him to her friends while he was watching her.

Unless he was waiting for her to do something rash out of desperation, and honestly, she was reaching that point. She knew she needed to visit the Scarlett Cauldron before the end of the week to ensure that they still had a deal, but she didn’t want to while she was being followed. She was also afraid of what Winger had told the potioneers. It made more sense why they would give her up if they knew she was a murderer. Diana may have been the one to make the killing bite, but Ava had cast the spell leading up to it. A werewolf was also mindless; Ava was not. She had been in full control of every action she had made, so if anyone was guilty, it was her, not Diana, which meant that Ava had to be the one to take the risk. 

However, Lily Flores solved that minor dilemma for her by choosing to approach Ava first. She knocked on the door to Ava’s room with a bag of healing potions and other basic supplies in her arms, so Ava let her in after only a slight hesitation.

“I wish I could afford to give you this stuff for free,” Lily said after making sure the door was sealed firmly behind her, “but you don’t have to buy it if you don’t want to. I needed an excuse to talk to you.”

Ava peeked in the bag, spying Murtlap Essence and Wideye Potion in addition to powdered silver and dittany, among other things. “No, I’ll buy it. You can never be too prepared.”

“Hopefully you won’t have to use any of it. I got an owl back from my friend, and it sounds like he should be able to get all of the ingredients. It shouldn’t be much longer now.”

Ava sucked in a breath, afraid to believe it. “You’re still willing to go through with this?”

Lily cocked her head. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Uncertain how much she knew, Ava didn’t know what to say. Quietly, she managed, “The Auror.”

“The potion’s not illegal,” Lily responded, raising her eyebrows. “You said it yourself, it would be more dangerous if I didn’t give it to you. I’m more concerned about you and your team.”

“What?”

Rather than clarify, the potioneer switched topics. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about Talbott. Have you met him yet?”

“Met him?” Ava felt a surge of anger and incredulity. “He came in here, threw a bunch of accusations around, and now he’s been  _ stalking  _ me.”

“Talbott Winger did?” Lily said in confusion. “That doesn’t sound like...oh.” She sighed and rolled her eyes. “He’s testing you. Just ignore him.”

“I can’t when he’s following me everywhere,” Ava said shrilly. “What kind of test is this?”

“One that’s not just aimed at you. Look, if he gives you too much trouble, come to me. Talbott’s a good friend of mine. Penny too. You’re lucky the Ministry sent him and not someone else.”

Her words made them both pause; Lily was fully aware that the Ministry was targeting her team. Ava dared to meet her eyes with the intention of offering an explanation, but was startled to find her blue gaze focused and intense. A tiny foreign presence whispered in the back of her mind, and her heart leapt into her throat as she realized what it was. 

_ GET OUT!  _ she mentally screamed, breaking eye contact as she struggled to lock away all thoughts and emotions amidst her panic. The walls she threw up in her mind were weak, but the presence vanished after coming into contact with the first one. Based on Lily’s sheepish expression, she had only withdrawn out of courtesy. Ava had mastered no more than the basics of Occlumency; a truly determined Legilimens could break through her barriers without breaking a sweat. 

“Sorry,” Lily said sincerely. “Force of habit.” It was a poor excuse and they both knew it. 

Ava crossed her arms, feeling violated. “That was a serious invasion of privacy,” she snarled.

Lily winced, appearing genuinely ashamed. “I didn’t see anything.”

“You could’ve asked for information.”

“Would you have given it?”

The truthful answer was, “No,” but Ava didn’t want to admit that Lily was right after such an attack. So, instead, she asked, “What did he tell you?”

Lily parted her lips, but there was a delay before any sound came out as she cautiously replied, “That you and your brother are Animagi...and that you’ve been involved with werewolf attacks. Nothing more specific than that.” 

That didn’t seem like an entirely truthful answer either, or at least Ava was too paranoid to believe that it was. 

She took a calming breath. “There have been...accidents in the past,” she said slowly. “I can’t tell you more than that, but you have to know I don’t want anyone to get hurt. You can trust me.”

“I don’t know you,” Lily said, although not unkindly. 

Ava grimaced, recognizing the ridiculousness of her request.

“But,” Lily continued, “I trust your intentions, at least with the potion. I said we would help and we will—both Penny and I.”

“Thank you,” Ava breathed. 

“You have your team and I have mine. I know the lengths a person will go to to protect someone they care about.” Lily paused and gave Ava a serious look. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I do,” she said, and she truly did. She understood far more than Lily could ever guess. And she also recognized a threat when she heard one. Right now their goals were aligned, but if that changed, Ava was done for. “Don’t forget though,” she pointed out, “I’m waiting on you.”

Lily chuckled, but she suddenly looked stressed. “That’s right, isn’t it. How typical.” She gave a half-hearted smile. “You ever wonder what it would be like to have a normal life?”

“Everyday.”

Every. Single. Day. 

But there was no such thing as normal, and there never would be. She had learned to live with that, and it looked like Lily had too. 

Normal would be boring anyway. 


	6. Wolfsbane

Jae Kim had a bad habit of coming through only at the last minute, and this time was no exception. It wasn’t his fault in this case though. Powdered Moonstone had turned out to be the hardest ingredient for him to find afterall, as he informed Lily the night before the week leading up to the full moon, and he had just managed to find a dealer selling suspiciously large quantities of it that same day. Suspicious or convenient or whatnot, they didn’t have the time to question it. In order for Wolfsbane Potion to be effective, a werewolf needed to start taking it  _ tomorrow.  _

“Thank you, Jae,” Lily exclaimed after going through the contents of the bag he had brought. “You’re a lifesaver! Literally.”

He smiled lazily. His black hair was sticking up at odd angles, and he still looked half-asleep. “Let me know how it goes,” he said. “Or don’t. Actually, it’s better if I don’t know.”  

She passed him his payment. “How about I let you know if there’s a story worth telling?”

“If you want.” He accepted the Galleons with a grin. “But  _ definitely  _ let me know when you want to do business again.”

Even though it was near eleven o’clock at night, Penny got to work on the potion right away. Lily assisted her as much as she could, whether it was passing her ingredients, turning the page in the recipe book, or bringing her Wideye Potion, but Penny never let her near the cauldron. On another day, Lily might have been insulted, but at that moment both of them were too terrified of messing this up. Penny was the expert, and unless it was otherwise stated, Lily needed no prompting to stay out of her way. 

Sometime around two in the morning, Lily fell asleep on a stool at one of the brewing room tables, and she was woken just before dawn by a toadstool hitting her in the back of the head. She blearily registered Penny still hunched over the cauldron with her forehead wrinkled in intense concentration. 

“Wha…?”

“I’m almost done,” Penny told her without looking up. “Go ahead and send an owl to Avalon.”

Biting back a groan at the pain of moving her stiff neck and back, Lily did as instructed, but she wondered if Avalon would even be awake to receive the owl. 

She needn’t have worried. Barely ten minutes had passed from the time Mudflop went out the window when the American witch rushed into the shop, the dark circles under her eyes indicating that she had gotten about as much sleep as Penny had. 

“This is cutting it very close,” she informed them unnecessarily. 

“We’re aware,” Lily said tiredly. She passed Avalon a vial of Wideye Potion, but when she tried to do the same for Penny, she was halted by a raised palm: universal for,  _ Don’t distract me.  _ She took the potion herself instead. 

“Last ingredient,” Penny muttered, dropping something in the cauldron. “Then I just need to stir like this…and lower heat...” Finally, she halted the motion of the stirring spoon and stared critically at the viscous liquid before her. Impossibly, her forehead wrinkled further, and she looked at the book, and then back to the cauldron...and then back to the book, and then back to the cauldron. Her face blanched. “No,” she breathed. “No, no, no, no…”

Shards of ice climbed from Lily’s chest up into the back of her throat. “Penny?” she asked faintly. 

“It’s supposed to be blue,” Penny said. “The smoke. It’s supposed to be blue. That’s not blue.” No, it wasn’t. The smoke rising from the cauldron was a sickly gray, nowhere near blue. She snatched the book off the table and rapidly flipped through the pages, stammering, “What did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? I had to have missed something. I had to have...I couldn’t have…”

Avalon threw her hand out to catch herself on a table, and she sank down onto a stool, her eyes wide and her face pale. 

“There’s still time,” Lily said. “We have the rest of the day. We can try again.”

“No, no, no,” Penny repeated. “I had half the ingredients prepared days ahead of time. And the other half...what Jae brought us...there’s not enough.” She gestured agitatedly at the ingredients scattered across the tables. “The only thing we have enough of is Moonstone!”

If that wasn’t ironic, Lily didn’t know what was. She was at a loss. “But you...you never botch a potion.”

“I botched this one!” Penny exclaimed. She continued to helplessly flip through the pages, her hands visibly shaking. She looked like she wanted to either yell or cry. 

“I’ll still pay for the potion,” Avalon offered quietly. 

That grounded them. “No,” Penny said sharply. “I said you would pay only when you have a properly brewed potion in your hand.”

“I’ll still take it.”

“I don’t think so. It’s ineffective at best. At worst…” Penny trailed off when she saw Avalon’s somber expression, and her eyes widened. “No! No, I won’t be responsible for giving someone poison!”

“The choice would lie with Diana,” Avalon said.

Hearing the werewolf’s name at that moment staggered both Penny and Lily. It was a painful reminder that they weren’t dealing with a beast; they were dealing with a person. A person they had just put in jeopardy because of their own failure. 

Penny recovered first to shout, “This is my shop!”

“We have a week,” Lily said, attempting to sound calm. “That’s more than enough time to find a solution where no one dies.”

Avalon’s face twisted. “Do you really think,” she said slowly, as if she was trying not to choke, “that, if one existed, I wouldn’t have found it by now?”

“What?” Penny squeaked.

“This time is different,” Lily said. “It’s not just you and your team; you have us too. We can help.”

Avalon stared at her in disbelief, clearly having a hard time understanding why she would want to help. “You have no idea…” she began uncertainly. 

“Hey,” Lily said, hoping she appeared more confident than she felt, “I battled a chimaera, a troll, and a dragon when I was fifteen. What have you done?” 

Avalon relaxed slightly at her teasing (although in reality Lily was only half-joking) and took a breath. “Okay,” she said. “Just...just give me time to talk with my team, and then we can come up with a plan.”

“I’m sorry,” Penny said mournfully. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Avalon smiled sadly. “You did your best.”

Once the American witch had Disapparated, Penny put her head in her hands and breathed, “What have I done?”

Lily couldn’t find the words to comfort her. In a week, they were going to have to face a fully transformed, mindless werewolf whose only desire would be to kill every human in sight, and somehow she had to make sure no one died. 

Nothing was ever easy, was it?


	7. Avalon's Promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added the "Implied/Referenced Suicide" and "Implied/Referenced Self-Harm" tags as potential trigger warnings just in case. In this and future chapters, one character's lines go in a dark-ish direction but no further than that. The "Self-Harm" tag also only refers to a canonical habit of werewolves and nothing else. 
> 
> Additional warning: I'm making up all of this as I go along, and anything may be subject to change. (Translation: I'm aware the majority of the story has been the characters arguing, and I may attempt to fix that.)

Ava felt as if she had drunk poison. Her head was fuzzy, and her chest had constricted to the point that it ached. Ice crawled through her veins, and her limbs were weak and heavy. She felt sick, so very sick. And she felt sicker still at the thought of bringing the news to Diana. How was she supposed to tell her friend that she was going to turn into a monster again?

When Ava materialized in the old shack, Diana was curled up on the bed, and she sleepily raised her head at Ava’s arrival, her brown eyes glazed and half-focused. She was already beginning to look thin and pale; there was no telling how much worse she would get in a week. 

Darius, who had been resting on the floor in his borzoi form, transformed back to a human faster than Ava could blink, and he gazed at her with wide, hopeful eyes. She didn’t have to say anything; his face fell within seconds of searching hers. “You didn’t get the potion,” he said numbly. 

“What?” Diana exclaimed, bolting upright. 

“They tried,” Ava murmured, “but it didn’t work. With more time maybe…” But, of course, they didn’t have more time. 

“No,” Diana moaned, pressing her forehead to her knees. “No, no, no…” Ava moved to put an arm around her, but Diana flinched away. 

Darius was baring his teeth again. “They did this on purpose,” he growled. “They wanted this to happen.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Ava said. “No one in their right mind would want a werewolf running around.”

Diana whimpered.

“Unless they want that werewolf to get caught,” Darius pointed out. “With that Auror snooping around? It would be too easy.”

Ava shook her head. “You didn’t see them,” she said. It was a lot harder to believe that the potioneers were working against them now that she had seen them in action. The scent of fear in the air when the potion had failed had been palpable. That was not a reaction that came with a plan gone right.  

Winger, though, was definitely a problem. It was hard enough dealing with a werewolf without interference. With it...well, past results had not been pretty. There would be blood in the future. The question was whose.

Diana knew this well enough, for she raised her head, revealing her face’s sickly pallor, and said, “We can’t let this happen again. If I have to see...one more time…” Her hands shook, and she looked Ava in the eyes. “You have to do it.”

Ava choked on a gasp. “I can’t!”

“You promised you would do it.”

“Yeah, but that was if…” She struggled for words. 

There had been too many accidents in the past. Too many people had gotten hurt, and finally, one person had died. Diana had begged them to promise to kill her before anything like that happened again. It had resulted in many arguments, but Ava had caved on the condition that she alone be the one to do it. Darius was the sole member of their group that remained innocent, and there was no way in hell she would let her little brother be responsible for killing someone too. 

“If you don’t, I will,” Diana said shakily. “I’ll die before I taste blood again, I swear.”

“You would let everything we’ve gone through be for nothing?” Darius said with surprising quietness. He looked hurt. 

Diana’s face crumpled. “I’ve hurt more people than I’ve helped. How is that worth anything?”

Ava grabbed her shoulder and squeezed it with more force than she intended. “That’s not true and you know it. Look, nothing’s happened yet. We still have time to come up with a plan.”

Diana gripped Ava’s hand as if to pry it off, but made no effort to. “And exactly how well have our plans always worked?” she demanded. 

_ Well, we’re still alive, aren’t we?  _ is what Ava wanted to retort, but she knew what Diana’s response would be to that—a response that would be very difficult to argue against. She had tried, but the scars that branded her arms and stomach didn’t work in her favor. 

“Ava’s actually right though,” Darius said, and he gave a hint of a smile when they stared at him in disbelief. “About this shack, I mean. I’ve been studying the enchantments, and they’re not just unbreakable, they are  _ unbreakable,  _ as in a really powerful wizard cast them. Whatever Hogwarts was keeping here, they really didn’t want it leaving this building. We’ve never been in a safer spot during a full moon.”

“Hogwarts?” Ava asked. “What do you mean?”

Diana frowned. “He found a tunnel to the school,” she said. “And then nearly got killed by a  _ tree. _ ”

“ _ What? _ ”

“There’s a Whomping Willow at the end of the tunnel,” Darius explained. “Tried to smash my head in when I poked it out the hole. But I’m fine!” he insisted quickly in response to Ava’s expression. “You know I’m faster than that. Come on, give me some credit.”

“I swear to Merlin, Darius…” Ava muttered. 

“What?” He grinned. “I told you I wasn’t going to sit completely still. And the point is that I’m agreeing with you.” Which was still shocking. “We’ll be safe as long as we don’t leave this building.”

“But the Auror—” Diana began. 

“Let me worry about the Auror,” Ava said. “I can keep him distracted.” Winger wanted to keep following her around? Fine then. She would use that to her advantage. She just had to figure out how to ditch him when the time came. A few hours had proved manageable so far, but an entire night would be another story. 

“Now I still don’t agree with that,” Darius said. 

“I’ve done well so far. Come on, give me some credit,” Ava shot back with some humor. She turned back to Diana and said gently, “Just one more transformation, Di. There’ll be no interruptions, and we’ll be right by your side.”

“You can’t promise that,” Diana said solemnly.

“No, I can’t,” Ava sighed. “But we’ll have help this time. Another Animagus.”

“We don’t know if we can trust her,” Darius said. “You can’t trust anyone that chooses to transform.”

Ava raised an eyebrow. “Looked in a mirror recently?”

He matched her expression. “We smuggled a wanted werewolf across international borders. And that’s only been within the past month.” Fair point. Diana honestly wasn’t the worst thing they had smuggled. But that didn’t mean they weren’t trustworthy, and it didn’t mean the potioneers weren’t trustworthy either. With that being said, it didn’t mean they were.

“If I change back,” Diana said, “and I see that I...that you are...or someone else…” She faltered, unable to get the words out, before taking a breath and stating grimly, “I will go straight to that Auror and turn myself in, no matter what the consequences are.”

“Fair enough,” Ava relented, despite feeling sick again. 

Diana’s lip trembled, and Ava was finally granted permission to embrace her. She climbed on the bed with her, and Diana buried her face in her shoulder. “Please keep your promise before that happens,” Diana said, the shake in her breath audible even with her voice muffled by Ava’s shoulder. 

“I will,” Ava murmured, feeling sicker. She felt Diana’s nails dig into her back, as if she was bracing herself for something. 

“Oh, dear Merlin,” Diana breathed. “It’s not like I want to die.”

“I know.”

Darius climbed on the bed with them and rested his chin on Diana’s shoulder, and the three of them huddled there in silence—together as they had always been and would be until the end. 


	8. The Duel

It was no secret that Penny was afraid of werewolves, but that wasn’t from a lack of trying. She preferred to keep her own fears and problems hidden; other people had more than enough to worry about without her contributing to it. But a fear was a hard secret to keep when she completely lost her head every time she was confronted with it. She felt nauseatingly cold and clammy at the mere mention of the word, and Merlin knows what she would do when faced with the actual beast. Probably freeze again. She would be a free meal, unable to put up a fight. Unable to protect her friends.

She had thought she was getting better. She hadn’t had nightmares in years, and she was able to tolerate Remus Lupin’s presence during Order meetings without bolting from the room. But she had been wrong. She wasn’t getting better; she had just been lucky enough to avoid facing her fear.

Ever since Avalon had appeared in the Cauldron, Penny’s nightmares had returned. They always took her back to that night—when her best friend had been torn to pieces before her eyes. When the werewolf had spotted them, she had frozen at the sight of its sharp teeth, dripping with drool, its dagger-like claws, nearly as long as her fingers, and its unnaturally human eyes, filled with a monstrous bloodlust. Scarlett had screamed, and then the werewolf had pounced. There had been blood, so much blood, redder than her cloak.

Penny had given her that cloak for her birthday so that her Muggle friend could get the chance to dress like a witch. Scarlett had been wearing it that night, and Penny had fainted at the sight of what it had become—nothing more than a rag, ripped and stained with what remained of her friend. 

Her mum had saved her, but by then it had been far too late for Scarlett. Her best friend had been killed, and she had just stood there and watched.

And now her worst fear was coming true again. A werewolf was in Hogsmeade, and when the full moon came, it would be out for blood. And it was all her fault. 

Lily thought too highly of her; it was an exaggeration that she never botched a potion, but with that being said, she had been certain she could get this one right. Wolfsbane Potion was difficult for sure, but she was used to a challenge. She had followed every step to a T, double and triple checked the instructions and measurements, and written down every smell and color change, and everything had gone perfectly...until it hadn't. After her horrific mess up, she had spent a good hour combing through her notes and book, yet she couldn't find where she had gone wrong. According to the sources, she had done everything correctly, but according to the ill-colored smoke, that clearly hadn't been the case. On an average day, this wouldn't have bothered her; she would simply try and try again until she got it right, even if it took weeks. But she didn't have weeks, and this single mistake would cost not just her but the entire town. 

But no one was going to die this time—not if she could help it—because she wasn’t going to let herself freeze again. She couldn't let herself freeze again, because any lives that would be lost would be lost due to her own failure, and it was her responsibility to ensure that didn't happen. Not now and not ever more. 

Leaving Lily in the shop to wait for Avalon’s return, Penny went out back and dragged one of Lily’s training dummies behind the greenhouse. She hadn’t dueled anything, creature or human, since she was still in school, and that meant she had a week to get back in shape. A list of spells ran through her head, and she fired them one by one into the dummy. 

“ _ Flipendo! _ ” The human-like figure teetered dangerously. “ _ Impedimenta! _ ” Its movement slowed down. “ _ Stupefy! _ ” It fell over backwards, falling in slow motion.

But, no, these spells weren’t good enough. If things went badly, then they would be fighting a killer, and if that was the case, then she needed to be able to cast spells that were just as deadly.  _ Incendio, Bombarda, Diffindo, Reducto,  _ and, “ _ Confringo! _ ” The dummy exploded, raining to the ground as twisted metal and smouldering wood.

Lily stared at her, wide-eyed, from the other side of the dummy’s remains, looking uncharacteristically tired and pale. Not liking the expression on her face, Penny repaired the training tool with a single, silent wave of her wand. 

“What are you doing?” Lily asked warily. 

Penny continued throwing spells at the dummy, albeit silently this time. “I’m out of shape,” she huffed. “I need to be ready.”

Lily opened her mouth, watched her knock the dummy off its wheels onto its back, thought better of it, and closed her mouth again. 

“Has Avalon spoken with her team?” Penny asked. 

“Yes. They sound…” Lily searched for the right words, “ _ decently  _ confident. They think they can keep her—Diana—where she is until after the full moon.” 

That sounded too good to be true, but if they truly wouldn’t have to fight the werewolf…

Out of the tip of her wand, Penny conjured a jet of flames so hot that the dummy began to melt. “That’s good,” she said. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know. Avalon wouldn’t tell me.”

Her concentration broke, and the flames died, leaving behind a figure that comically resembled a melting snowman. She frowned. “Then how are we supposed to help?”

“She’ll come get me the night of.” Lily’s tone of voice indicated she didn’t like being left so little time to prepare, something Penny agreed with. “Werewolves aren’t aggressive toward Animagi, so I can help keep her calm.”

“And me?”

Lily didn’t answer. 

Penny faced her directly, her eyes narrowed. “How can I help?”

“You’re not an Animagus,” Lily said quietly.

“I’m not staying here,” Penny replied sharply. 

“It was Avalon’s idea.”

“But you agree with it.”

“I do. Because if you get too close...all the wind has to do is change and Diana will smell you. She’ll go wild. Nothing will be able to control her.”

“She could go wild anyway!” Penny exclaimed. “If something goes wrong, you’ll need all the help you can get.”

Lily eyed her doubtfully. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” she said cautiously, “but your presence will probably make things worse.” Her wariness alone, like Penny was something fragile she was afraid of breaking, was hard enough not to take the wrong way, much less her words, so Penny found herself having to fight unusually hard to keep her temper. 

“I won’t get too close,” she promised. “Just to a place where I can watch for trouble.”

Then Lily said something that felt like a blow to the stomach: “That’s not the only thing I’m worried about.”

It took Penny a moment to find her words, but when she did, they came out like thorns. “I’m not going to freeze.”

“No offense,” Lily said quickly. “Really, Pen, I’ve told you you’re the most level-headed person I know, and I mean it. You’re a goddess under pressure. But not with this. I’ve seen you panic, and we can’t risk it.”

“Can’t risk it?” Penny echoed angrily. “You’re the one to talk about risk,  _ Lily Flores. _ ” Lily flinched. “The amount of times I’ve seen you throw yourself in front of giant spiders or Dark Wizards or dragons! One of these days something is going to be faster or stronger than you, so if you think I’m going to wait patiently at home while you get yourself killed, you’re as mad as everyone says!”

That touched a nerve, as was evident when Lily suddenly stiffened. Even after all of these years, her “mad witch” reputation still got to her, no matter how much she denied it. “I’m trained to handle this kind of thing,” she said with forced calm. “It’s my job.”

“You’re not a curse-breaker anymore,” Penny shot back. “Or a creature handler. You are a  _ potioneer.  _ You’re as out of shape as I am.” 

This wasn’t entirely true. Penny had been a potioneer since she had left Hogwarts nearly six years ago; Lily had only been working with her for seven months, after graduating with the unofficial title of one of the best duelists in the entire school and spending five years shuttling dangerous creatures around the globe. So, what happened next should have come as no surprise, especially since Penny had struck another nerve. 

“Try me,” Lily scoffed, drawing her laurel wand. “Let’s end this argument right now. You want to prove you’re capable? Then prove it. Don’t hold back.”

Penny raised her cedar wand determinedly to meet hers. “Don’t forget—first time we dueled, I beat you.”

“That was on— _ Protego! _ ” Her last word came out as a panicked squeak, just barely escaping in time to block Penny’s nonverbal attack, and the air shimmered in front of her as the invisible shield shattered the offending jinx. 

Penny raised an eyebrow. “Not out of shape?”

“That wasn’t fair!”

“Who said anything about fair? I heard ‘Don’t hold back.’”

“That’s right,” Lily growled, slipping easily into a dueling stance—one foot in front of the other, arms raised, and wand at the ready.

Penny again didn’t wait for her to make the first move; she launched another spell straight at Lily’s chest. Lily countered it, silently this time, and then had to counter again, and again. Red light, blue light, yellow and purple struck and sparked and shattered against the air before her as Penny fired off the now very long list of spells she had compiled in her head. Lily didn’t have time to fire back; she could only shield herself, her face tight with concentration. Penny grinned as she took a step forward, forcing Lily to take a step back. She had been right; Lily was out of shape and out of practice. Penny could actually win this. 

But then something happened. Lily didn’t block her next spell—she  _ danced.  _ She leapt and spun, deftly avoiding Penny’s jet of red light, and before both her feet were firmly on the ground, she fired back. Penny cast the Shield Charm with a second to spare, abruptly finding herself on the defensive. She edged backward in a desperate attempt to achieve more distance from the source of the blindingly powerful spells that shot at her, one after the other, in quick succession. Anytime she found a gap to fire back, Lily danced out of the way again, able to use the seconds of breath gained to reclaim the offensive. 

Those were Merula’s moves. When had Lily learned them?

Lily launched another spell so bright it caused spots to float across Penny’s eyes. “ _ Protego! _ ” Penny shouted aloud in alarm, throwing all her power into the word, and the spell struck her charm with so much force that it nearly knocked her over. The air in front of her wavered and cracked, and her wand grew so hot in her hand that she briefly feared it would burst into flames. 

“ _ Bombarda! _ ” Lily roared. 

Penny dove out of the way with a yelp as the spot where she had been standing exploded with a deafening  _ boom!  _ A wave of dirt and heat washed over her, and she rolled back to her feet to find a scorched crater in the ground less than a meter away. She couldn’t have blocked that if she had tried. “Are you trying to alert the neighbors?” she exclaimed. 

Lily smirked, reminding her once again of Merula. “That’s what you’re worried about?”

“Well, you haven’t killed me, have you,” Penny said, as if her heart wasn’t galloping at the near miss. Her normally sweet and gentle friend always became a different person during a duel, and she had forgotten how much it scared her. 

“You’re still holding back.”

“I am not!”

“Yes, you are. Stop it. I want you to try to hurt me.”

“Keep talking down to me like that and I will.  _ Stupefy! _ ”

Moving faster than Penny could blink, Lily dodged the Stunning Spell and flicked her own wand with a cry of, “ _ Everte Statum! _ ” 

And then Penny was flying backward, weightless for a few precious seconds, before crashing down hard into the grass. The wind tore itself from her lungs in an instant, and she gasped fruitlessly, clutching at her stinging chest.

“See?” Lily said, striding toward her. “I told you—”

“ _ Dupulso! _ ” Penny choked out, pointing her wand at Lily’s legs. They threw themselves out from under her, and she face-planted in the dirt, giving Penny enough time to climb to her feet. “I have more stamina than that,” Penny informed her. 

Lily spat out a mouthful of grass and growled, “Two can play at that game.” Then she was on her feet, wand raised again. “ _ Flipendo! Locomotor Mortis! _ ”

Penny blocked the first spell, but the second one slammed straight through her weak Shield Charm. As the curse touched her skin, her legs snapped together, bound tightly by rope, and she fell back over, landing painfully on her tailbone. “ _ Rictusempra! _ ” she quickly shouted. 

Lily only had enough time to widen her eyes before the charm struck her in the stomach, and she doubled over, laughing uncontrollably. “No...no,” she gasped, collapsing onto her knees. “ _ Fin...Finite...In...Incan...tatem. _ ”

“ _ Diffindo, _ ” Penny muttered, cutting free of the rope around her ankles.

They both climbed back to their feet, pointing wands and wary gazes at each other, although neither made a move. Penny felt sweat running down her face and back, and Lily was breathing heavily. They were worn out and in a deadlock, and yet both were feeling too stubborn to forfeit.

Then Lily silently flourished her wand in an unrecognizable gesture, and before Penny could figure out what she was doing, a silver creature leapt from its tip. A large, furry creature with sharp fangs and claws. Penny’s feet locked in place as it charged her, and by the time she realized what it was, it pounced, flying through her body like a gust of warm wind. Lily flicked her wand again, and then Penny’s feet really did lock in place. Her legs snapped back together, her arms pinned themselves to her sides, and she tumbled over, rigid as a board and unable to move a single muscle. 

Lily crouched beside her, absentmindedly twirling her wand. “You froze,” she said matter-of-factly.

Penny could only glare at her. She had seen a cheetah Patronus charging at her. How was a person supposed to know how to react to that?

Lily cast the counter-curse, and Penny felt her limbs unlock. “ _ Dupulso, _ ” she said immediately, and Lily face-planted again.

“Feel better now?” Lily groaned, rolling onto her back next to Penny. 

“Honestly? A little.”

They lay there, covered in sweat and dirt and panting so hard they felt light-headed, and neither felt any inclination to get up. At that moment, there was no reason to. The duel was over, and it was clear who had won.

“Don’t say it,” Penny said.

“Don’t say what?”

“Don’t say I would be dead by now.”

“Oh.” Lily chuckled weakly. “Actually, I was going to say you were right. I need to start training again. Merlin, I can’t breathe…” And light-hearted Lily was back. 

“We could both use some practice,” Penny admitted.

“Mm,” Lily hummed her agreement. There was a pause. Then, “You didn’t cast a single spell that could’ve hurt me.”

“And I still had you in tears,” Penny said, referring to the Tickling Charm. 

“It’s more than your fear,” Lily said quietly, ignoring her attempt at a joke. “The reason I don’t want you out there. Even if you can get past it, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to protect what matters. That includes taking an innocent life if necessary.”

There was a voice in there that wasn’t Lily’s. It wasn’t Merula’s either, although it was close. No, it was— “You sound like Rakepick.”

Lily’s breath caught. Penny had avoided saying that name for years because it was on the long list of topics Lily refused to discuss. Saying it now, and in a comparison to her no less, was the equivalent of willfully walking out onto cursed ice.

But Lily said calmly, “I agree with Rakepick to a point. Sometimes there are lines that have to be crossed, and that’s easy enough to say when it comes to fighting a monster. But an innocent person...no one deserves that kind of blood on their hands.”

“If you think I can’t do what it takes—”

“That’s not it either. It’s not a bad thing, not being the person to cross that line. You shouldn’t have to. I’ve done it enough times, so it’s only right that I—”

“Stop that,” Penny snapped. “Stop trying to be the hero. You’re still trying to keep me out of danger, and I hate it. I don’t need to be saved.”

“No, you don’t. But I know you feel like you have a responsibility—”

“Damn it, Lilianna! I have the same right to protect my friends that you do, so if I want to protect you, or anyone, shut up and let me protect you! We’re supposed to be a  _ team.  _ We’re supposed to be watching each other’s backs, but you always charge in alone like a knight with a death wish.”

She could see Lily’s astonished glance out of the corner of her eye, and there was a long silence as Lily struggled for words. Then she murmured with amazed disbelief, “Don’t take Sir Cadogan’s pony when there’s an abraxan right next to it. Is that seriously what you’re saying?”

“Sometimes you’re the daftest Ravenclaw I’ve ever met. I’m saying stop trying to get yourself killed by protecting everybody and let me help you.”

“And you’ve suddenly become very aggressive for a Hufflepuff,” Lily said lightly. “This is all hypothetical of course. For all we know, Diana could have a smooth transformation, and nothing will go wrong.”

“Let’s hope so.”

“And you’re still not an Animagus.”

“I know.” That kind of threw a wrench in the entire argument, didn’t it? “But you have no good excuse for not sending a Patronus if something happens.”

“Fair enough,” Lily relented.

They fell silent again, although it was a much more comfortable silence than before. Then a thought struck Penny. “Hey, what about Talbott?” she asked curiously. “Is there a reason you haven’t told him what’s going on yet?”

“Oh, yeah,” Lily sighed. “I should talk to you about that…”


	9. Birds of a Feather

The next few days had the paradoxical quality of passing very slowly and very quickly at the same time. The full moon crept ever closer, and yet Ava was forced to go about business as usual for the sake of the watchful eye of the Auror. While her friends remained cooped up in a decaying old shack, she got to explore the grasslands, forests, and mountains of the Scottish countryside. While Diana became progressively sicker and sicker, Ava got to play with nifflers and converse with merpeople and centaurs. And while she should have been having the time of her life, she couldn’t enjoy a single minute of it knowing her friends weren’t with her. Knowing what was coming. 

So, while the moon rapidly waxed as she watched helplessly, the days crawled by as she tried to find stuff to do that at least gave off the impression of “Magizoologist.” Truthfully, this wasn’t too hard. The reserve around Hogwarts was filled with a lifetime’s worth of creatures to study—everything from abraxans to fairies to grindylows to unicorns, but it was hard to focus, especially since she was still being watched. 

For a terrifying day or so, she had thought this was no longer the case, which in her mind meant that Winger had given up following her around and was now searching for her friends on his own, but fortunately, and with many thanks to a unicorn, she was proven wrong. She had been trying to coax a young stallion to the edge of the forest, where there would be more light for her to examine an object lodged in its hoof, when the creature had spooked, disturbed by a nearby male presence. She had looked up just in time to see a flash of brown feathers disappearing into the trees, and it brought her a confusing sense of relief to know the Auror was still stalking her after all. 

Only because she was actively looking for him and was well familiar with his form by now was she able to spot him while she was out and about. Even then though, it was highly difficult, and on more than one occasion, a rustle in a tree on a windless afternoon was the sole sign that he was there. It was apparent that he was no longer testing her and was now waiting for her to do...whatever he was waiting for her to do when she thought she was alone. This was good, because as long as he kept following her, she would never lead him to her team, even if she still felt highly uncomfortable. 

But this meant she couldn’t visit her friends until the night of the full moon, and with each day that passed while she was on her own, it became harder to control the stress and anxiety that was slowly crushing her. She stopped sleeping, or if she did, what little sleep she got was fitful and nightmare-ridden. She rarely lingered in front of a mirror, but her appearance must have gotten fairly bad because she drew concerned glances whenever she went downstairs in the Three Broomsticks, and the innkeeper had taken to asking Ava every time she saw her if there was anything she could do to help. Ava knew that letting her health slip was the exact opposite of what she needed to be doing at that moment, but she was afraid of taking a Sleeping Draught in case she had to wake up suddenly in the middle of the night. 

However, there was one thing that helped her keep her sanity, and that was her Animagus form. Day or night, whenever she felt her heart beating too quickly or her breathing become too shallow, she changed into an osprey and went for a flight. With hearing and feeling nothing but the wind in her feathers, smelling and tasting the country air, and seeing the green summer world stretched out beneath her, she could, for a brief moment, remember what it was like to be calm. Way up here, nothing tethered her to the ground—no threats, no worries, and no fears. Here she was safe and free. 

She found particular enjoyment in flying around the lake, diving down close to its waves and playfully skimming her talons along the water. She did have a small fright when an enormous tentacle broke the surface and started thrashing around, but the resident giant squid soon turned out to be quite friendly (she indulged the thought that it had been waving at her). She made a point of visiting it regularly and even made a game of diving for fish, which she would drop into its outstretched arms.

But these distractions only had a temporary effect, and once her feet were firmly back on the ground, her mind always returned to the wearying task of running through every scenario that could go wrong. Really the only likely ones were that Diana would suddenly attack her and Darius or that she would try to escape and would get smacked by the Whomping Willow, which were horrible enough, but her brain insisted on running through the unlikely scenarios as well. The worst, the one she kept lingering on, was in which Diana managed to escape to the village, where she was guaranteed to find someone to attack, and with Hogsmeade being the only all-wizard village in Britain, where someone was guaranteed to attack back. 

Two days before the full moon, after running through every worst case scenario a good dozen times, Ava quickly decided she wasn’t going to sleep that night either, threw open the window to her room, and took off through it. The night air was pleasantly cool in her feathers, but the luminous orb that hung over her, nearly complete, did little to ease her anxiety. 

Barely a minute into her flight, a shadow passed over the moon—over her, and on instinct she swerved and shot upward, rising high above whatever was trying to get the drop on her in the darkness. But the silhouette was much larger and more maneuverable than a hawk of her kind, and with a few short, quick wingbeats it was flying level with her.  _ Gliding  _ level with her—it barely needed to move its large wings to hang there in the night sky. It was the eagle of course; she could recognize him even by moonlight, and his presence annoyed her. She went flying when she wanted to get away from people. Couldn’t he continue stalking her in the morning?

The answer was obviously no, and now it looked like he wanted to do more than silently follow her. Animals didn’t use words in a human sense, but through a combination of sounds, body language, and other subtle signals, they were able to communicate all the same. And it was in this way, while they were floating hundreds of feet above the ground, that he spoke to her.

_ We need to talk,  _ he said.

She wanted to say no. She wanted to bolt away and leave him far behind her, but she couldn’t do that. For one, an osprey was no match for the speed and maneuverability of an eagle. He could fly as fast as she could dive, and he could dive at more than double the speed she could. For another...running from an Auror probably wasn’t the best idea.  

_ Now?  _ she asked irately, finding it harder to hide her annoyance in animal form. 

_ Preferably. The sooner the better. _

_ Fine.  _ They were both out there, so they might as well talked then.  

She pulled her wings in and dove, tripling her speed, and he easily kept pace with her as she wove through trees and buildings until she saw what she was looking for. Childishly irritated that the eagle was faster than her, she landed gracelessly on the roof of an old barn and had to quickly flap her wings to stall her momentum. A startled owl hissed at her threateningly and then fled in terror as she changed back to sit down on the unstable roof as a witch. Winger, with nearly silent movements, sat down next to her. 

“Nice spot,” he said. “The family that owns this farm has a lot of mixed blood. They went into hiding about a month ago. Not an accusation,” he added, seeing the expression on her face. “Just an observation.”

“Are you here to accuse me of something,” she asked, “or did you just get tired of stalking me?”

“Stalking?” he echoed in surprise.

“Did you think I don’t see you?”

“No, it’s not that.” Unexpectedly, he grimaced. “I’m just doing my job.”

“Your job is extremely creepy.”

Normally she would never talk to an authority figure like this. Maybe it was because she had seen so much of him these past two weeks, or maybe it was because he was an Animagus of similar age, or maybe it was because she was so tired, but she didn’t have the patience to be polite. 

He opened his mouth, closed it again, and then straightened and said stiffly, “Where did you go five days ago?”

“Nowhere,” she said too quickly. “I haven’t left Hogsmeade.”

He wasn’t fooled. “You Disapparated. You went into the Scarlett Cauldron and you Disapparated for over an hour.”

Alarm shot through her chest. He had been following her even then? She hadn’t seen him; she had been so certain she had slipped away without him noticing. “Like I said, that’s creepy,” she said with the kind of indignation that stemmed from fear.

“Where did you go?” he pressed. 

She gaped at him for a moment before an idea seized her. “London,” she said slowly, as if relenting. “To see Diana. She was staying at the Leaky Cauldron when I met her.”

The moonlight glinted off his dark eyes as he surveyed her, his gaze sharp and intelligent. Too intelligent. “Are you telling me this because it’s the truth, or are you telling me this because you want to get rid of me for, say...about two days?” 

Well, damn. She scowled to hide her astonishment. “Don’t tell me you still think I’m a werewolf.”

“You look ill,” he noted.

“I am not a werewolf!”

“Not an accusation,” he repeated calmly, holding his hands up placatingly. “Just an observation.”

_ Point for Ava,  _ she thought, taking a breath. “Sorry,” she murmured as she rested her chin on her knees. He was right though; she was so, so tired. 

“One more question,” he said with surprising gentleness. She looked at him expectantly. “Is there a werewolf in Hogsmeade?” 

For a brief, insane second, she wanted to tell him. He was another Animagus, one that was devoted to helping people; he could help them. But that was ridiculous. To many, a werewolf wasn’t something that deserved help. If she brought him to Diana, he would have her captured or killed in an instant.

“No,” she said firmly.

He nodded, although if it was because he believed her or not, it wasn’t clear. “Okay then,” he said in the same calm tone. “No more accusations, no more questions. Not without a price.” She raised her eyebrows at him, and he continued, “I meant it when I said I want to talk, so let’s talk. You can ask me any question you like and I’ll answer, but then you have to answer any question I ask, and vice versa.”

That sounded like he was attempting to trick her into giving something away, and it was for that reason that she said, “No offense, but I don’t want to talk to you.”

His lips twitched, as if fighting back a smile. “Are you afraid because you have something to hide?”

Well, that was one way to back her into a corner, wasn’t it?

“Fine,” she said, “but I reserve the right to ask for a new question.”

“Agreed. You start.”

“Why are you following me?”

Now he did smile, clearly unsurprised by her first choice. “I can’t say. New question,” he said, and she realized with a jolt that he had pushed her into proposing that rule so that he wouldn’t have to. 

“Okay…” She thought for a moment and then asked the first thing that came to mind. “Why did you become an Animagus?”

He looked at her warily, appearing oddly taken aback, and there was a long pause before he said, “There are only three people that I’ve ever spoken to about that.” And then it seemed like he wasn’t going to answer. 

She repositioned her chin on her knees, letting the light night breeze wash over her skin, while she thought of another question and wondered if it was possible to come up with one that wouldn’t get rejected. 

“Because of my mum,” he said so abruptly that she jumped. “She was an Animagus, so she taught me to transform when I was very young—back when the war was still going on. It was supposed to keep me safe.” He paused and then added as a quiet afterthought, “I guess we should start calling it the First War now.”

It occurred to her that she wasn’t the only one feeling stressed in that moment, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it before he asked, “What about you? Why did you become an Animagus?”

She found herself hesitating as long as he did, realizing that there were only a handful of people that knew the truth about her and Darius as well, and Winger could not be one of them. She immediately wondered if his answer had been entirely honest, but the conclusion she came to did nothing to soothe her conscience. There was no logical reason for him to deceive her, at least not with that, so as guilt involuntarily writhed in her stomach as she gave him her white lie, it occurred to her that sometimes the truth was more influential than a well-crafted deception. 

“It’s complicated,” she said finally, “and it sounds more depressing than it actually is.”

His lips twitched again, forming another half-smile. “Try me,” he said, and she could have sworn that it sounded like a challenge. 

“Okay, you know how I talked about needing to get away from people on occasion? I didn’t have many friends when I was in school, my dad being a No-Maj and all. The Anti-No-Maj sentiment isn’t as bad as it was seventy years ago, but well, you know…” She waved her hand at their surroundings, and he nodded. There was no need to say any more; the political climate spoke enough for them. “It’s been my experience that animals tend to be easier to get along with than people, and I was good friends with my Transfiguration teacher, so one thing kind of led to another. It seemed practical too, if I wanted to go into Magizoology, which I did.”

This was the truth, but it wasn’t the whole truth. Social isolation was only one of the reasons that had convinced Ava to become an Animagus, and if not for Diana, she might never have taken the risk at all. True, Ava didn’t have many friends when she had been in school, but neither this nor the teasing had bothered her much. Having spent the first eleven years of her life traveling, she had been granted such a unique view of the world that she was comfortable enough in her own skin not to care what people think. Darius had taken it much harder when he had joined her at Ilvermorny two years later, but with her there, he didn’t have to deal with the snide remarks alone like she had. And, of course, neither of them had been completely friendless. 

Ava had met Diana the beginning of their first year, both of them having been sorted into Pukwudgie, and they had hit it off instantly. Most people kept their distance from Diana because she was mysteriously sick all the time, but Ava enjoyed her good nature and sense of humor, and in spite of Ava’s half-blood status, Diana had loved hearing stories of her travels and the creatures her mom worked with, especially when she wasn’t feeling well. They became close, albeit reluctantly on Diana’s part, and before the year was out, Ava had confronted her about being a werewolf.

When your mother was a Magizoologist and your best friend disappeared during the full moon every month, it would have been hard not to put two and two together. Apparently Diana had been bitten a few years prior, but her family had managed to keep it a secret with some outside help—the same outside help that had allowed her to keep her secret even while attending school. Ava had been shocked when Diana had admitted that their Transfiguration teacher, who was an old family friend, had been supplying her with Wolfsbane Potion and hiding her in his office every month, but their friendship had become even more solidified after that. And when Darius had finally been sorted, he became friends with Diana too. 

But the help of a professor did not always guarantee smooth transformations for Diana, nor did it always guarantee access to Wolfsbane Potion. There were several terrifying months when she had to go without, and there had been plenty of near misses in the form of near discoveries, near expulsions, and near deaths. Ava knew Diana was miserable always going through the pain of her transformations alone and tried repeatedly to stay with her, but their professor had been adamant: Wolfsbane or no, he wouldn’t let any human near a werewolf in case something went wrong. So, when Ava had been in her third year and Darius in his first, she had asked him to teach them how to become Animagi. It had taken some convincing, but he had finally relented before they risked hurting themselves by changing on their own. He couldn’t keep them away from Diana any more after that; they were no longer human.  

“So that’s why you became a Magizoologist?” Winger asked. “Because animals are better than people?”

She couldn’t deny a grin, partially from amusement and partially from relief at the harmlessness of the question. “I never said animals are better than people. I said sometimes animals are easier to get along with than people.”

“Oh, my apologies,” he said dryly, and she chuckled. 

It occurred to her that she could get out of this question with a technicality, but it was innocuous enough that she decided to answer it anyway. “That is one reason though. My mom is another. After growing up tagging along on her research expeditions, I guess at some point I decided I never wanted to stop. Exploring, that is.” Coincidentally a Magizoologist was also the perfect job for a werewolf, although Ava had considered it to be her dream job long before figuring that out. 

Winger made a sound that was suspiciously like a scoff. “I know someone else like that,” he murmured, as if to himself. A cloud passed over the moon, making his eyes appear oddly dark and distant in the sudden absence of its faint light.  

“Your turn now,” she said. “Why did you become an Auror?”

There was another long silence. Awkwardly long. She tried to read his face, but without the moon, his features remained hidden in shadow. The darkness smoothed his skin and turned his eyes black, giving him the appearance of a statue. Or perhaps a scarecrow, she internally amended as the breeze lightly ruffled his feathery hair. Either way, his stillness was unnerving, and she began to wonder if she had said something wrong. 

“I’m not sure I want to answer that,” he said after a small eternity. 

“You asked me about my job…” she began slowly. Her intention was to lead this into an apology, not to confront him. His question to her had been harmless, so she had mistakenly assumed it would be the same the other way around. It wasn’t fair, of course, but she felt bad about unintentionally putting him on the spot. 

Which only went to show how much sleep deprivation had gone to her brain since he had clearly demonstrated he had no qualms about putting  _ her  _ on the spot. 

But, perhaps fortunately, he took her words as a confrontation regardless. “You’re right,” he sighed, “but there are only three people I’ve ever spoken to about this too.”

“A bit of a solitary person then.”

He cocked his head to the side, and she could’ve sworn she saw a flash of teeth. “Only in the same way as you,” he said, his calm voice revealing nothing. “You have your team and I have mine.”

She stiffened, momentarily speechless. He had said the same thing as Lily, word for word. Was that simply a coincidence, or was he implying something? 

If he noticed her reaction, then he gave no indication. “I did set the conditions though, so fair is fair I suppose,” he continued. A hole tore itself open in the clouds over their heads, creating a window for the moon to gaze down at them through, and when he spoke, he spoke not to her, but to its distant, pockmarked face. “My parents had a lot to do with it. Well, they had everything to do with it. They weren’t Aurors themselves, but they dedicated their entire lives to helping others. The way they talked...every life from Muggle to pureblood was worth more than theirs, and if everyone else was happy, then they were happy. And I guess this wasn’t the...safest viewpoint to express publicly; it made them a target.” 

His voice, which had been growing quieter with every word so that she had to lean closer to hear him, strengthened suddenly, boosted by an emotion she couldn’t identify. It was something a little like pride...and something a little like anger. “But it was also inspiring. Still is, even now. A lot of people died in the war—kind, noble people. Not just Aurors but Healers, writers, and artists—just for expressing ideas that were unpopular or for choosing to put other lives before their own. And I thought that, maybe, if I became an Auror, then I could stop that from happening again.” 

Abruptly, he laughed once— _ ha! _ —and she jumped. “It’s kind of ridiculous, saying that now with what’s going on—people going missing, dementors in rebellion, giants smashing up towns...One Auror can’t do much against all of that. But if I could protect just one person, ensure one child doesn’t have to grow up without their parents, I think that would be enough.” His voice faded away, and the long silence returned, sounding louder than ever before. She couldn’t see his face; he was still gazing up at the moon, and his typically rigid posture gave nothing away. 

She had registered his use of past tense while he had been speaking, but she didn’t dare ask the question that was sitting in the back of her mind. He had said more than enough—more than she, a complete stranger, deserved. For a moment, she forgot why they were there, and she felt the bizarre urge to apologize again, even though there was nothing to apologize for. “I think that’s something any parent would be proud of,” she said quietly instead, and she meant it. 

He turned to look at her directly. The moonlight was once again reflecting off his eyes, giving them an oddly deep, quizzical appearance. There was a beat, and rather than comment on what she had said as she had expected, he said with an unusual lightness, “We’re even again. Do you want to go next, or shall I?”

And then she was promptly brought back to earth, glad that the darkness hid her burning face. Lost in his story, she had momentarily forgotten what was going on. He was manipulating her, trying to get her to give up her team’s location, and it terrified her to realize that it had been working. She had let her guard down. 

“You just did,” she managed to say as she recollected herself. 

There it was again: another brief smile. “I say that’s bending the rules, but I’ll let it slide. Your turn then.”

With her head firmly back on her shoulders, a pattern in their conversation occurred to her, and the more she thought about it, the more she failed to see how it made sense. “You haven’t asked me about anything you don’t already know,” she stated, willing herself to hold his gaze directly. “Even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t have been that hard to figure out. So, why?”

He stared back at her unflinchingly, the ghost of the smile still hanging at the corners of his mouth. “You’re under the impression that all of this has been for my benefit,” he said, sounding faintly amused. “You’re right about everything you’ve told me. I did already know most of it, and the rest would have been pretty easy to guess. But my goal hasn’t been to learn more about you. Not entirely at least.”

“But...what?” she stammered. 

He shook his head, as if disappointed she didn’t understand him. “I want you to realize something. About me, I mean. I don’t say this about...well, anyone really, but we’re not that different.” She gave him a skeptical look, and he shook his head again as he added insistently, “I’m talking about in our goals and beliefs. The people we want to protect.”

For some reason, this touched a nerve, and she found herself pushing down an unexplained wave of anger. “If you really think you’ll earn my sympathy so you can go and report back everything I tell you to the Ministry, then you’re the one that needs to realize something about me,” she said coldly. 

For several seconds, he stared at her with a look of total incredulity, and then, in a manner so uncharacteristic of him that it shocked her, he threw back his head and laughed. It was a bursting, open-mouthed, honest laugh that rang out over the abandoned farm, and the confusion it left her in only made her angrier. 

“What is so funny?” she demanded. 

“I’m sorry,” he gasped, not appearing apologetic at all. “It’s my fault really. I shouldn’t have assumed…” He laughed again, but to his credit, he managed to turn it into a cough. “Did I not make it clear that this is off the books? Don’t tell me you assumed this is some kind of typical interrogation.”

“That’s not fair,” she protested, feeling her face heat again. “You’ve given me no reason to trust you.”

That sobered him. “Did I not?” he asked, suddenly calm again, and then he sighed. “Oh, well…It was worth a shot.” Before she realized what had happened, he had stood up with such speed and grace that she hadn’t seen him move. The rickety roof creaked under his feet, but he balanced on its uneveningly sloping surface with ease. “I think we’ve accomplished all we can for tonight. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go to bed.”

Warily, she climbed to her feet as well, uncertain if he wanted her to leave first so that he could follow her again. 

He didn’t give her time to come to a conclusion. Instead, he inclined his head with a polite, “Good night, Brooks,” and then an eagle was soaring away from her, momentarily silhouetted against the moon before it disappeared into the trees. 

She stood there for some time after he had gone, her feet rooted to the rotting wood beneath them. There had been a hidden message in his words, one she didn’t dare to believe. He wanted her to trust him—of course he did. But was that because she truly could? That was asking a lot. Surely he was manipulating her. 

_ You’re under the impression that all of this has been for my benefit. _

Wasn’t it?

Snapping out of her stupor, she leapt off the roof, transforming before she was halfway to the ground, and beat her wings to climb back up through the air. It didn’t matter if she could trust him or not; she couldn’t take that chance. Her team always had to be her number one priority, and she couldn’t allow herself to jeopardize that by getting wrapped around the finger of a sob story. 

Only, he had never actually said his parents were dead. He had never said he was trying to make them proud. No, he had held back, leaving her to jump to that conclusion on her own, and she had no idea if she was right. But was that part of the manipulation?

She beat her wings again, out of frustration rather than necessity. The short burst of energy calmed her down, and she leveled out to glide on the light breeze over the main street. The buildings were dark and silent beneath her, every sensible person having gone to sleep, and she knew she needed to be among them. If she allowed herself to get sick, then she would put Diana in even more danger. Not to mention herself. 

The Three Broomsticks came into view, and catching sight of the window she had left open, she shot through it into her room to lightly land on her feet as a human. She indulged a petty smile to herself at her acrobatics as she turned to close the window. She would have liked to see the larger bird accomplish that without smashing into the side of the building.

And then she had leapt back off her feet with heart hammering and hands clamped to her mouth as she fought back a scream. Darius was sitting on her bed. 

He quickly flicked his wand, sending the window sliding shut before she could make a sound. “What are you doing here?” she gasped at the same time he demanded, “Where have you been?”

“I’ve been looking for you for an hour,” he said anxiously as he hopped to his feet. “I thought something had happened.”

“I just couldn’t sleep,” she said. “You shouldn’t be here. The Auror will see you.” Telling him she had been with the same Auror that was giving them trouble probably wasn’t the best idea.

“I didn’t have a choice. Ava, it’s…” He forced himself to take a breath, and she realized with a jolt of alarm that he was pale and shaky, as if he was ill. “It’s Diana,” he said faintly. “I think she’s dying.” __


	10. Sickness

Lily sat at the desk in her room with a blank piece of parchment in front of her and a quill in her hand, but she made no move to write anything, choosing instead to gaze absentmindedly out the window. There was nothing to see at this hour. It was well past midnight, and darkness was pulled tightly over the glass like a black curtain. She wasn’t really looking though, for she had gotten lost in thought instead. 

Pip, her tawny leopard-spotted cat, butted her head against her legs, but she barely registered the feline’s attempts to vie for her attention. In a last minute burst of anxiety, she had entertained the idea of sending an owl to her friends to ask for an extra hand. Having an expert dueler like Bill, Tonks, or Merula stationed nearby could have been a huge help, but that idea was also one she couldn’t seriously consider. Bill was busy with work and family, Tonks had gotten out of the hospital not long ago, and Merula had enough on her plate without Lily asking her to go behind the back of her already suspicious boss. The teachers that lived in the village weren’t better options. Kettleburn was off taking advantage of his retirement by touring dragon reserves, and Professor McGonagall was still relying on a walking stick. 

Realizing she was running the worn feather through her fingers, Lily forced herself to set the quill down on the desk. No, she had never seriously considered writing to anyone, especially since it was safer to keep as many human lives away from the werewolf as possible, but that didn’t stop the occasional doubt about the extent of her abilities from slipping in. 

There was Talbott of course, but the thought of him brought her more anxiety than comfort at that moment. She had yet to tell him about the danger the town was in, and she was uncertain if she was ever going to. The fact was, he was a Ministry employee. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, but given the choice between loyalty to his job and loyalty to her, she knew exactly what he would choose. She couldn’t put him in that position, not with the way the Ministry was lashing out at anyone that showed the slightest bit of suspicious behavior. 

At least, that was the excuse she kept telling herself for lying to him. 

A quiet, deep gong, felt more than heard, suddenly reverberated through the air, and she nearly knocked her chair over backwards as she shot to her feet. The Intruder Charm.

She rushed out of her room at the same time that Penny emerged from the door next to the kitchen. Her flatmate had her hair down and was wearing a nightgown, but she was too wide-eyed and alert to have been asleep. They only had enough time to exchange an alarmed glance before something pounded heavily on the front door, and they both whipped out their wands, half-expecting it to fly open. Lily stared at the door in concentration for a second, and then ran to open it without another moment of hesitation. She had barely needed to focus her Legilimency to recognize the mind on the other side of the door, and to recognize that it was filled not with malicious intent but with fear. 

Avalon Brooks stood at the top of the stairs with hands trembling and chest heaving. Strands of hair had ripped themselves free from her ponytail and were curling in wild directions, and she had the slightly mad, unkempt look of someone that had spent several days in a state of extreme stress. “I’m sorry!” she gasped. “I kept knocking downstairs but I don’t think anyone heard me, and I know it’s late, but...but…” She had to pause to catch her breath. “But it’s Diana. She’s really, really sick, and I don’t know what to do. I tried some of the stuff you gave me, but it didn’t work, and...and…” Her voice cracked and she looked at Lily miserably. “I need help.”

Lily jerked her chin, indicating for her to move out of the way. “Downstairs,” she said tersely. Avalon retreated down the steps and then threw herself against the wall as Lily blew by her into the brewing room, which she crossed in a few quick strides, straight into the storeroom. Penny, having pulled on a long coat over top of her nightgown, followed her in and helped her pull potions off the shelves, which they stuffed into a bag Lily held. Avalon anxiously hovered in the doorway. “Describe her symptoms to me,” Lily ordered her while continuing to scan the shelves.

“She has a high fever. And she’s in a lot of pain. She can barely move. Can’t even sit up.”

“Is she sweating?”

“No...no, I don’t think so.”

Lily nodded and ran her finger along the different labels. “I didn’t give you a fever-reducer, did I?”

“No.”

“Here,” Penny said, holding out the vial she had been looking for. Willow bark was listed as the main ingredient. Lily thanked her and placed the vial in the bag. 

“Do you know how to treat her?” Avalon asked.

“Maybe,” Lily said honestly. “It sounds like her body’s fighting something. Could be her lycanthropy, but I have to see her to be certain.” She half-hoped it was her lycanthropy and not something else. If Diana had to deal with another disease this close to the full moon, then there was a chance her body wouldn’t be able to handle it. But if it was her lycanthropy, then that meant…

Avalon frowned, putting the pieces together. “But...lycanthropy’s not treatable. So, wouldn’t that mean her body is…?”

“Fighting itself, yeah.” And Lily had no idea if that was something she could stop. “If you want me to do anything, you need to take me to her.” When Avalon gave a hesitant nod, she turned to Penny. “Pen, you should...”

“Don’t tell me to stay here,” Penny said sharply. 

“...stay here in case Talbott comes looking for her,” Lily finished as if she hadn’t spoken. 

Penny glared at her. “You’re not going alone.”

“We’re not arguing about this again.  _ Talbott, _ Pen. You agreed.”

Something cracked behind Penny’s fierce expression, and she crossed her arms. “What would I even tell him?” she asked, her voice wavering despite her efforts to maintain a stubborn appearance. 

“Just stall until I get back. I trust you.” 

There was a long pause as Penny clearly wrestled with this. She glanced at the distraught Avalon, and while she looked like she wanted to keep arguing, what she saw appeared to be enough for her to drop it for now. “You owe me one for this, Lilianna,” she said darkly. 

“A pound of treacle fudge from Honeydukes it is then.”

Avalon held her arm out, and after hoisting the strap of the bag securely over her shoulder, Lily moved past Penny to take it. As she clamped her hand firmly around Avalon’s forearm, however, she heard a faint whisper of, “Good luck,” and then the stone walls of the Cauldron dissolved with a pop. 

When the world came back into focus, she found herself in what looked like the decaying wreckage of an old entrance hall, and a quick glance behind her revealed that the front door and windows were boarded up. No one had lived in this place for a long time, and she had to fight the urge to draw her wand as a voice in the back of her mind whispered that she was trapped. 

“Where are we?” she asked Avalon, who was rocking from foot to foot with impatience.

“The abandoned house on the outskirts of the village. The one the locals think is haunted.”

“The Shrieking Shack?”

“That’s the one.”

“Brilliant,” Lily exclaimed. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? There was no better place to hide a werewolf than one that had been expressly _built_ to hide a werewolf.

“This way,” Avalon said and led her up a flight of stairs, but they were halted halfway through their climb by the appearance of a young wizard on the top step. A light shining from the hall next to him illuminated his features, drawing attention to the same reddish-brown hair, blue-green eyes, and freckle-smattered cheeks that Avalon had. He wore a similar protective outfit to his sister’s, although his tunic, spaulders, and boots were brown in contrast to her gray ones. That’s where the similarities stopped, however, for while Avalon was short and on the stout side, he was tall, lean, and muscular. He looked like a powerful fighter, and with the wand raised in his hand and the scowl on his face, was emanating the distinct aura that he was not someone to mess with. 

“Ava,” he growled, lining the name with more words than he had said aloud.  

“Darius,” Avalon said calmly. “This is Lily. She can help.”

Lily nodded in his direction, and he studied her for several long seconds. As the light reflected off his eyes, she realized that they were too wide for his fierce expression. Too fearful. Without a word, he returned the nod and vanished down the hall, allowing them to continue up the stairs. 

Avalon pointed her into the remains of a bedroom where Darius stood with arms crossed at the side of a four-poster bed, and it was in that bed that lay a small young woman. When Lily had seen the picture of Diana Otxoa, she had had a full round face and shiny black hair, but this woman that lay before her had an oddly sunken, skeletal appearance beneath her dull, matted dark hair. Her eyes were closed, and her features were contorted with pain as she writhed on top of the quilt, clutching the fabric in her hands. 

As Lily moved to her side, she saw Darius move a foot toward her out of the corner of her eye, and for a moment she thought he was going to stop her. But she crossed the room uninterrupted, although she heard him whisper to his sister, “You shouldn’t have brought her here.”

“Yeah, well, Diana shouldn’t be sick,” Avalon quietly retorted. 

Lily brought the back of her hand to Diana’s forehead. Avalon hadn’t been exaggerating; her fever was scorching. “Hi, Diana,” she said softly. “Can you hear me?”

“Mm,” Diana grunted, which Lily assumed was an affirmative. 

“My name’s Lily. I’m going to try to make you feel better, okay? Can you tell me where it hurts?”

Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing brown eyes that were glassy and unfocused, and she immediately winced and half-closed them again. “Everywhere,” she said weakly. “It feels like...like...my bones are breaking.”

“Does this always happen this close to the full moon?”

“Some...sometimes. But never this...bad.”

Lily nodded to herself and fished around in her bag for the right vial. “Alright, I have a potion here for you, but I’ll need you to sit up. Do you think you could bear to do that?”

“It...hurts.”

“I know, but this will stop the pain.” 

She gestured at the siblings, and at first neither of them moved. Then Avalon shouldered her brother, and Darius moved to Diana’s other side. Slipping his arms beneath her, he gently pushed Diana into a sitting position, and she whimpered and hung her head, possessing no strength to hold herself up. Lily carefully pulled her chin up, feeling her shallow breath on her hand, and began to tip the contents of the vial into her mouth. Diana choked and spluttered, spitting the potion back out, and whimpered again. 

“That’s okay,” Lily said, wiping her glove across her face. “We can try that again.”

“No...no…” Diana whined in barely intelligible protest. Her entire body was trembling with the stress of staying upright. 

“I haven’t been able to get her to keep anything down since yesterday,” Darius murmured. 

Diana’s eyes opened a bit further in a look of sudden panic. “Wait, what time is it?” she gasped. “You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be near me.”

“It’s fine,” Lily said soothingly. “There’s still time. You’re safe.”

“No, no, no one is safe. Get away.”

“She’s lost it,” Avalon exclaimed. Indeed, Diana’s eyes remained unfocused, and her words were slurred as if she was drunk. 

“Diana,” Lily said. “You need to calm down. The potion won’t work if you’re not calm.”

“ _ No, _ ” Diana said with such unexpected sharpness that the rest of them flinched. “You shouldn’t heal me. I don’t deserve it.” And then she burst into tears. They flowed weakly in her dehydrated state, and her sobs jerked her already uneven breath. “You should let me die before I kill someone else. Ava won’t kill me before then. I know she won’t.”

Avalon gripped one of the bed posts, looking like she was trying not to cry too, and a low, continuous sound rose deep in Darius’ throat that was disturbingly similar to the beginnings of a dog’s growl. 

“Don’t worry,” Lily said, still keeping her voice gentle, and she felt everyone’s attention zoom in to focus on her. “My job is to protect as many lives as I can, and I intend to fulfill that no matter what. But you’re a life too, so I’m afraid I can’t let you die without forsaking my duties. And I don’t want that, do you?”

Darius’ growl broke off mid exhale. As suddenly as she had started, Diana stopped crying and blinked several times as clarity crept back into her features.

“Now let’s try this again,” Lily continued, bringing the vial back to Diana’s lips. Diana drank, started to gag, but managed to fight to keep it down. The effect was almost immediate. Her breaths became deeper and more even, and her body relaxed. “Is that a little better?” Lily asked, and Diana nodded. “Good. The full effect won’t kick in for about a half hour, but until then you can drink this.” She pulled another vial out of her bag. “This is a potion for a dreamless sleep. You can sleep through the rest of the pain and will hopefully wake up well-rested.”

“Thank you,” Diana murmured as Lily pressed the vial into her much steadier hand. 

“Just feel better,” Lily said sincerely. “I want to have proper introductions when all of this is over.”

Smiling slightly, Diana drank the second potion and passed the empty vial back to Lily before allowing Darius to help her lie back down. She passed out within seconds of closing her eyes, her breathing now steady and her face now peaceful, and when Lily put her hand to her forehead again, she found that her fever was already lower. Lily let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t believe that had actually worked. 

“Years,” Darius exclaimed abruptly in a burst of angry incredulity. “We’ve been telling her that for years and now she listens?”

Avalon laughed the kind of giddy laugh that comes with the release of a weight on a person’s chest. “You know her—she won’t listen to us. She has to hear it from someone else.”

Lily passed her bag to Avalon. “Here,” she said. “These are more fever and pain reducers, and there are some Sleeping and Calming Draughts in here too. They won’t help when the time comes, but they should help keep her comfortable until then.”

“How much do we owe you?” Avalon asked, her eyes shining gratefully. 

“Nothing. It’s kind of our fault you’re in this mess, so consider this an apology.”

“Thank you...so, so much.”

Darius cocked his head, as if seeing Lily for the first time. His scowl was gone, and in its absence his face looked a great deal younger. She would dare say more boyish. “Are you a Healer?” he asked her curiously.

“Not officially. I was apprenticed to the head of the hospital wing at Hogwarts for a while when I was a student, so I picked some stuff up.”

Avalon frowned. “But...a potioneer’s not your only job, is it?” she said slowly. 

Lily grinned. “Why do you ask?”

“Something you just said. I mean...what you told Diana. What did you…?” Avalon trailed off uncertainly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lily said with a wink, prompting a pair of wary glances in response. She decided that now was a good time to change the subject. “Is it alright if I come back in the morning? I want to check on her, and to discuss the plan you guys have for the full moon.”

Avalon looked sideways at Darius, and he nodded. “Yes, we’ll see you in the morning,” she confirmed. 

“Thank you,” Darius said quietly, his gaze dipping to the ground. For a tall guy, he suddenly appeared small, and the change added to his youth. 

“Well,  _ someone  _ has to be there to help out, don’t they?” Lily said, maintaining her grin. 

When she finally Apparated back to the first floor of the Cauldron, she was exhausted yet also strangely calmer and more confident than she had been when she had left. This here was progress. It was nerve-wracking, death-defying progress, but it was progress nonetheless. She felt better about the people she was going to be risking her life with at least. Together, they had taken one thing that had been going wrong and had made it go right for once. Maybe it was too soon to speak just yet, but she felt that they could do this. The full moon was just another hurdle that they had to overcome, and Merlin knew that Lily had overcome plenty of hurdles in the past. 

She climbed the stairs and opened the door to the flat, fully prepared to soothe a no doubt worried Penny with the good news, but what she saw killed the words on her tongue and made her stop short. Penny hopped up from the couch. “Lily!” she exclaimed, appearing dangerously on the verge of tears. “I haven’t told him anything, but he keeps demanding to talk to you, and when I said I didn’t know where you were, he said he would wait here all night until you came back, and...and...”

Lily turned to the second figure in the room. Talbott Winger stood stiffly with his arms crossed and his expression stony. “Lilianna,” he greeted her coldly. “You two have some explaining to do.”

Oh, she was in trouble; there was no doubt about that. 


	11. Bargain of Trust

By the time Lily walked through the door looking about as disheveled as you would expect for someone returning home near 3 AM, Talbott had lost all but his last shred of patience, and that was saying something. He regretted the way he had interrogated Penny, but this had become ridiculous. He had given them nearly two weeks to come clean, and even now he was being denied information. The time for patient waiting was over. 

“Talbott,” Lily said, matching his tone and posture. “Finally given up on tormenting poor Avalon?”

“I knew it,” he said. “I knew you were in contact.”

“Of course you did. That’s why you were being so obvious, isn’t it?”

No one could ever deny that Lily belonged in Ravenclaw for she had hit the nail on the head, exactly as he had intended her to. Or perhaps not exactly. He had been following Brooks around—stalking, as she put it—with the hope that she would go running to Lily, which she did in a way, but that’s where his plan had stopped working. He had assumed that when Brooks told her what he was doing, Lily would call him in to explain everything, if only to stop him from interfering, but as the days had passed, that had begun to look less and less likely. Realizing he had assumed wrong, he’d switched to following Brooks for real, but of course by this point she had learned how to recognize him. His final attempt to get information had been to rebuild her trust and make amends, but it was hard to rebuild something that had never been there in the first place. Then when both his quarry and his friend had vanished in the middle of the night, he had decided that that was the last straw. 

“It was only as a courtesy that I was giving you a chance to act first,” he said. “How long did you seriously think you could keep me in the dark?”

“A courtesy?” she echoed incredulously. 

“See? I told you,” Penny informed her. 

“You agreed with me!”

“Yeah, but what we want and what he wants have always been two different things.”

Annoyed, Lily gestured for her to stop speaking and refocused on him, repeating, “A courtesy?”

“I have a job to do,” he said, “same as you.”

“It’s because of your job that we didn’t tell you anything!” Lily exclaimed. 

“I’m not talking as an Auror,” he said, raising his voice. “But now I’m starting to think you don’t trust me.”

Lily’s eyes went wide. “Of course we trust you! But I didn’t—”

Penny cleared her throat.

“— _ we  _ didn’t want to jeopardize your position.”

“Jeopardize my position? You think I care about that?”

“No, which is exactly the point.”

He glared at her. That was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. “I became an Auror,” he said, lowering his voice dangerously, “because I decided that protecting lives is more important than anything else. It is the same reason I joined the Order. If I get punished for doing my job, then it wasn’t worth having in the first place, and you insult me by suggesting otherwise.”

The guilty expressions on their faces brought him satisfaction, but Lily still said stubbornly, “You can’t fault me for wanting to protect my friend.”

“Actually, I think I will,” he retorted, and she rolled her eyes. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, will you tell me what’s going on?”

With much reluctance, she relented, and they caught him up to speed. The majority of it was as he had suspected—Brooks and her team were hiding a werewolf. It came as a small surprise that it was Diana Otxoa, but he supposed he should have seen it coming; she was the member of the team most likely to fit the bill. But the part that caught him off guard was…

“You botched the potion?” he exclaimed to Penny. Her jaw tightened, and she nodded without looking at him. He had guessed—and accurately so—that the Americans had enlisted the help of the potioneers to make a Wolfsbane Potion, but there had never been a doubt in his mind that Penny would succeed in brewing it. He had assumed that everyone had been stressed simply from hiding the werewolf, and the situation was so much worse than he had imagined. 

“Two days,” he said. “We have two...no, less than two days until the full moon, and you’re telling me this now?”

Lily, at least, had the good nature to wince. “Yes.”

“You would allow Penny to get dragged into this but not me?”

“Penny is standing right here and is capable of making her own decisions, thank you very much,” said Penny. 

Lily ignored her. “She’s not coming, not the night of.”

“Now that I can agree with.”

“Still standing right here!” Penny declared angrily. “In  _ my  _ shop!”

“We dueled over it. She lost,” Lily informed him. “Avalon agrees too; she was the one who suggested it.”

Talbott felt a flash of respect for Brooks; it sounded like she didn’t want his friends to get hurt either. 

“If Talbott gets to decide when he puts himself in danger, then I should too,” Penny said. 

“Talbott’s an Animagus,” Lily said wearily, as if they had already had this conversation many times before.

“Lily’s right,” he said. “You’re neither an Animagus, nor—” He broke off before he could say, “Nor an expert dueler,” for Penny’s expression was telling him that pointing out any more of her weaknesses, no matter how true, would prove he had a death wish. He knew that she wanted to show that she was capable after messing up, but getting herself killed was not the way to go about it. “We need you here. Well, we need  _ someone  _ here,” he amended, thinking quickly, “and you seem like the best person.”

She stared at him suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

“Night of the full moon, while we’re making sure the werewolf doesn’t escape, someone needs to make sure all the villagers stay inside their houses. No one can be outside or it could draw her attention.”

“I was thinking about that,” Lily said. “I had the idea of starting with Rosmerta and planting the rumor that a dementor was spotted.”

“And where there’s a rumor…” Talbott began.

“...there’s Penny Haywood,” Lily finished with a grin. 

“You guys,” Penny sighed. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.”

“But we’re right, aren’t we?” Lily asked. “It’s still something that has to be done.”

“Fine,” Penny said reluctantly. “I’ll look after the village.” But she looked remarkably happier at the prospect of having something to do.

Talbott refocused on Lily. “In the morning, I want you to take me to them.”

“They won’t like that. They barely trust me.”

“They’re going to have to if they want their job to be any easier.”

“Keep demonstrating your sense of courtesy then. That’ll convince them.”

“As long as you keep demonstrating how much you care about your friends.”

_ Smack!  _ Something solid struck him in the back of his head, hard enough to make his eyes water. His hand shot for his wand, ready to retaliate against Lily, before he realized that she was clutching the back of her own head while two books floated back to a shelf on the wall. Penny calmly stowed her wand. 

“We need to start a round of apologies.” When no one said anything, she continued, “I’ll start. Talbott, I’m sorry we kept this from you.”

“I’m sorry too,” Lily grumbled, although her glare was directed at Penny. “It wasn’t fair.”

“And I’m sorry I wasn’t more direct,” he muttered, certain his smarting head had as much to do with Penny being forced to stay behind as it had to do with their argument. 

“Thank you,” Penny said in satisfaction. 

“So will you take me to them?” he asked Lily again.

“Of course,” she responded. “I never said I wouldn’t, but we probably won’t get a warm welcome.”

“We’ll deal with that when it comes.”

That night, Talbott got no more than an hour of sleep as his mind raced with all that had been revealed. He had less than two days to prepare to deal with a bloodthirsty monster. Less than two days. Had he taken matters into his own hands sooner and investigated properly, he would have found this out a week ago, but instead he had wasted time assuming his friends trusted him. He would forgive them eventually, of course, but at that moment not enough of his anger had faded yet.  

He met Lily outside the Cauldron early that morning, and together they Apparated to what she informed him was the entrance hall of the Shrieking Shack (a clever hiding spot, and one he felt stupid for not having guessed). Before they could take two steps, however, a pair of figures rushed into the room with wands drawn, and they wasted no time in pointing them at their chests. Instinctively he reached for his own wand, but Lily caught his wrist before his fingers could close around its handle. She raised her hands in peaceful surrender, and reluctantly he followed suit. 

Avalon Brooks locked eyes on him, and her face filled with shock and fury. “What is  _ he  _ doing here?” she demanded.

“He’s a friend,” Lily said calmly. “He’s here to help.”

“This is a serious violation of trust.”

“That’s the Auror?” Darius Brooks rumbled. He wasn’t what Talbott would call a big guy, but his height and shoulder breadth far exceeded Talbott’s, making him more physically imposing than he would have liked. 

“That’s the one,” Avalon said. 

“I’m not here as an Auror,” Talbott said, keeping his hands raised. “I’m here as a friend.”

The Brooks didn’t lower their wands. Their eyes were a little too wild, their faces too determined, and their postures too on edge. They knew that they had a government official at the end of their wands—or at the end of Avalon’s wand—and as far as they were concerned that meant there was no going back. They would fight their way out if necessary, and they would do whatever it took to win. 

He felt a hand brush against his thigh. Lily had taken his wand and was holding it out with hers. Avalon flicked her wrist, and both wands flew into her free hand unopposed. She exchanged a glance with her brother. 

“You want to help?” she asked, addressing Talbott directly.

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I already told you, haven’t I?” he said. “It is my duty to protect as many lives as I can.”

Her question had not taken him by surprise, but their response did. Their gazes whipped back and forth between him and Lily in alarm. “Who are you people?” Darius hissed.

Talbott looked at Lily questioningly, and she nodded in confirmation. Ah. She had been letting information slip. Well then, if that was the case… “Consider us the frontlines of this war,” he stated. 

To say they looked stunned was an understatement. What little color had been in their faces drained away, and Darius moved a foot forward as if he was going to lunge at them. Avalon moved a foot back. “What?” she said faintly. 

“Let’s just say we’re pretty good at keeping secrets,” Lily said. She paused for a moment and then added, “At least, if you are.”

A secret for a secret. It was a decent bargain in his opinion. 

Avalon’s eyes locked onto his again, but what exactly she was searching for or what she saw he had no idea. He did see, however, the moment her face steeled. She nodded—once, firmly, and her arm fell to her side. “Lower your wand,” she told Darius, who had not moved and was staring at her in shock.

“Have you lost your mind?”

“Do it. I trust them.”

“That’ll be a yes,” he muttered but did as instructed.

Talbott felt his body relax, not realizing he had been stiff, and he heard Lily release a long breath she had been holding in. 

“We keep these though,” Avalon said, passing Lily’s wand to her brother. Talbott and Lily nodded. He felt vulnerable without his wand and knew that Lily did too, but this was a trust exercise he was determined not to fail.

“Can I check on Diana?” Lily asked tentatively.

“With Darius,” Avalon agreed. “ _ He, _ ” she briefly pointed her own wand at Talbott again, “stays here with me.”

“No,” Darius said sharply. “Bad idea.”

“Go,” she ordered him. “We need to talk.”

Talbott felt a smile tug threateningly at the corners of his mouth. He wanted to say,  _ No offense, but what if I don’t want to talk to you? _ but he knew such a question would be counterproductive. So, after Lily and Darius had trudged up the stairs with many backwards glances, leaving him and Avalon Brooks alone, he silently raised his eyebrows in expectation. She glared at him. He recognized that expression; Lily made it when she didn’t want anyone to know she was afraid. 

“What is your plan?” she asked.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your plan. What are you going to do next?”

He wasn’t sure what she was implying. Was she accusing him of having ulterior motives? He couldn’t truthfully deny that. “My plan is your plan,” he said with something like honesty. “You’re the expert in this situation. I’m here to assist.”

But that wasn’t what she had been asking. After glancing furtively over her shoulder, she lowered her voice when she spoke next. “Say something goes wrong and Diana escapes—what would you do then?”

Now he caught on. “You’re asking if I had to make a choice between her life and someone else’s, is that it?”

“Yes.”

He couldn’t bring himself to lie, nor did she deserve it. “Don’t ask me something you don’t want answered,” he said quietly.

“You can’t kill her—”

“Brooks…”

“—because I have to be the one to do it.”

He felt the peculiar sensation of having been hit with the Knockback Jinx, although no one had cast a spell. It was an unpleasant blow to the chest, and it was one that took his breath away yet failed to leave a mark. 

“I promised Diana that if it came down to her or someone else, I would kill her,” Avalon continued. Her face was burning with the same kind of desperate determination it had held when her wand had been pointed at his chest. Part of him had wondered if she would have tried to kill him, and it worried him that he still couldn’t come to a definite answer. 

“You don’t want to do that,” he whispered.

She attempted a scoff, but it came out weaker than she had probably intended. “Well, of course I don’t  _ want  _ to, but I made a promise.”

“You should leave it to me. I’m trained for this.”

“So am I.”

“But do you realize what you’re talking about? What that entails?”

“I have a better idea than you might think.”

His mind involuntarily dragged up the image of a man—face slashed beyond all recognition, clothes shredded, entrails hanging out—and a chill ran down his spine. But, no, that had been an accident, hadn’t it? He had been bluffing earlier when he had suggested that she had been involved; there had been no reason for him to actually think so. 

“I made a promise,” she repeated, her voice fading to half a whisper, and with that quiet, wavering statement, his doubts shoved themselves to the side to be replaced with a complicated emotion he was slow to identify. It was a little bit of pity and a little bit of admiration. 

“Okay,” he said softly. “You get the first shot. But if it looks like you’re going to fail, I will step in.”

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, her chest visibly swelling and compressing with measured beats. “Thank you,” she breathed to the ceiling.

_ That’s not something you should thank me for,  _ is what he wanted to say, but he didn’t need to. She knew well enough.

“You may not believe it yet,” he said slowly, “but I really am a friend.”

She lowered her head and met his eyes, again doing so without hesitation. The Knockback Jinx feeling returned, although not quite as unpleasantly as before. Something in the air had changed, and though he had yet to figure out what it was, he wondered if she had. She clearly saw things he didn’t, including whatever she saw that allowed her to look into his eyes without fear, and to his pleasant surprise, she steeled her expression, nodded once, and handed him back his wand. 


	12. Scarlett

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the long delay. Life has been a bit of a hurricane lately, both figuratively and literally, and I can only write on certain days of the week now. There are about five chapters left, give or take, so I'm hoping I can finish them soon.

The day of the full moon came without ceremony. In fact, it was unusually quiet, which was a significant change from the past hours that Talbott and Lily had spent arguing. Most of the arguments had consisted of one shouting that the other needed to rest while the other shouted that they still had preparations to make before the argument was inevitably turned around on the instigator. By this point, slighted jabs had often been thrown from both directions, for neither had forgiven the other for their recent behavior. Penny knew that they were trying to avoid sitting still more than they were truly angry, but there was only so much they could do to prepare. They had run out of books to read on werewolves, and they had agreed that a practice duel at this time would bring more exhaustion than improvement. So, on the final day, they waited. 

Penny had told Lily that waiting made the anxiety worse, and that was no less true now than it had been before. The logical part of her knew why she had to stay behind, but the rest of her feared and resented it. How could they expect her to sit alone in the flat for hours while they were out risking their lives? She tried not to think about what it would be like to wait until the morning they came back—either whole, injured, bitten, or as lifeless, unrecognizable lumps of flesh and blood. If anything happened, it would be her fault, and she could do nothing but wait and see. 

First thing in the morning, she found Rosmerta in the Three Broomsticks and fed her the story about the dementor. It wasn’t a hard story to believe, considering that the dementors were no longer under the Ministry’s control (no matter what the Ministry said), so it was unsurprising for one to have wandered into the village. There had certainly been more than enough despair to go around lately. With that being said, Rosmerta was close with Lily, so it was unsurprising that she didn’t buy a single word.  

“There isn’t really a dementor, is there?” she asked shrewdly. 

Penny was a little disappointed. She had thought she’d been very convincing. “I’m only telling you what I’ve been told. Better safe than sorry, right?”

“And I don’t suppose this has anything to do with Winger and the American girl he’s investigating?”

Penny failed to come up with an answer in time, and her hesitation was a confirmation in itself. 

Rosmerta sighed. “Please tell me Lily hasn’t thrown herself into danger again.”

Penny didn’t tell her, but from the resignation in Rosmerta’s voice, it sounded like she already knew the answer. “Please just pass on the message,” Penny told her instead. “We don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“I would hope not.” The innkeeper set down the glass she had been drying and leaned across the bar, fixing her with a disturbingly piercing gaze. It was unexpected then when her voice came out soft and low. “Whatever you’re doing, I don’t want to know, but promise me you girls will be careful. We’ve lost enough people in this town as it is.”

Penny resisted the urge to deathgrip the counter as a wave of panic, layered with guilt, swept up from her stomach into her chest, and she resorted to digging her nails into her palm behind her back. “I’m not the one you need to be asking,” she whispered.

Rosmerta grimaced. “I know.”

Penny had been relieved to finally have something to do—to finally be considered useful again, but as she left the Three Broomsticks, she found herself feeling worse. Zonko’s Joke Shop loomed up ahead on the High Street, appearing unnaturally dark and somber with its quiet face and boarded up windows, and it wasn’t the only one to have adopted such a state. Other shops and houses were also silent and empty, as if the buildings themselves were cowering without their occupants to protect them. 

_ We’ve lost enough people in this town as it is.  _

Another wave of fear rose in her chest, but this time a stronger, warmer emotion cut through it: resolve. She had a job to do, no matter how upset she was at the reason it had been given to her, and she would be damned if she let anyone get hurt because of her fear. She had sworn to Dumbledore himself that she would protect this town, and protect it she would. 

Fortunately, as she continued down the High Street, passing the word about the dementor to other shopkeepers and passersby, she had a much easier time convincing them than she had Rosmerta, and when she returned to the Scarlett Cauldron, it was with a sense (albeit a faint one) of accomplishment. 

There was such a stillness in the flat when she entered that she would have thought it was empty if her eyes weren’t telling her that Lily and Talbott were in front of her. Talbott stood stiffly in the kitchen with his back to her, staring out the window at something she doubted she would be able to see. Lily sat at the table with her head bent forward, the fabric of her skirt clutched in her hands, and her eyes unfocused. Penny took the satchel she had brought up from the brewing room, which was full of potions she had brewed the night before, and set it on the table so that the vials inside softly clinked against each other. Lily startled. Talbott didn’t flinch. 

“Thanks,” Lily said, rolling her shoulders and neck. She sounded like she had just woken up. Or snapped out of a trance. “How was Rosmerta?”

“About as expected.”

Lily snorted. “Of course.”

Talbott turned away from the window and stared at Lily stoically, and the latter blanched and lowered her gaze. Attempting to play off the gesture, she drew the satchel closer to her to peer inside it, and satisfied with what she saw, slipped its strap over her shoulder.

“I think we should go ahead and go,” she said to the bag.

Penny’s heart gave a little jolt, and she was sure it was audible as she responded. “If you think that’s for the best.”

Lily gave her a reassuring smile and a hug in farewell. “Don’t worry. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

Talbott permitted a hug as well, although without the meaningless reassurances he also probably wanted to say. 

“Take care,” Penny said. And then they were gone.

And so the waiting began. 

In her sudden isolation, Penny felt the impulse to do something she had not done in years. After hesitating for a single anxious heartbeat, she walked into her room, kneeled on the floor, and pulled a trunk out from underneath her bed. It took several long moments of moving aside old memories—childhood drawings, a handsewn doll from Beatrice, a toy broomstick she had only ridden once—before she reached the bottom, and there, neatly folded and as brilliantly red as the day it was purchased, was Scarlett’s cloak. She took it into her hands and ran the soft fabric through her fingers. Looking at it now, it was impossible to tell that it had once been shredded and covered in blood; her mum had done an impeccable job of restoring it. But Penny still knew, and it was the reason she had never been able to look at it until now. It had always hurt to remember.

Now things were different; she needed the reminder of what was at stake, even if it still hurt. And, if she was being honest with herself, she needed to be close to Scarlett one more time. She brought her nose to the cloak, but it only smelled of the musty trunk. Red hair, green eyes, a freckled nose crinkled in a smile—they were all fuzzy images in the back of her mind, and yet they weren’t gone. She pulled the garment on. It had been a tad big when she had given it to her friend, and now it fit perfectly. An image of Scarlett being swamped beneath the folds of fabric suddenly came into focus, and she experienced the odd combination of wanting to both laugh and cry.

Yes, she knew perfectly well what was at stake. 

As the sun neared the horizon, Penny did another lap around the village to clear any stragglers from the streets. Few people went outside at night these days even without the rumor of a dementor sighting, and those that were out and about went back in with little prompting, making her job quick and easy. She had reached the end of High Street before twilight had fallen completely and was about to turn around when laughter, quickly followed by an annoyed hiss, pulled her attention away from the town. In the distance, two short figures were moving along the road toward the castle, their bodies stooped slightly as if they were carrying heavy weights...or were trying not to be seen.

Sensing something was off, she brought her wand to her head in a split second decision. A feeling like cold water trickled down her body as the Disillusionment Charm took effect, camouflaging her conspicuous light hair and bright cloak against the darkening surroundings, and she took off after the figures. She could have easily Apparated to their position, but she didn’t want to risk it on the chance that they were Death Eaters or some other kind of Dark Wizards. Even if they weren’t, she didn’t want to startle them into fleeing before she could figure out what they were up to, which surely couldn’t have been anything good this close to dark. She would know. 

She hurried down the road as quickly as she could without her footsteps becoming audible. While the dim twilight aided her charm, she had cast it poorly enough that if anyone were to look carefully for followers, they would spot her, but fortunately the figures never glanced back. They seemed to be focused on speed more than subtlety, and because of this she failed to catch up to them until they paused on the border of the Hogwarts grounds. By this point, the darkness had all but fallen fully, and she heard their voices before she was able to get close enough to get a good look at them. 

“Is it safe?” one voice asked, high-pitched and youthful. “I heard they were going to put extra charms around the school. What if we get hexed or something?”

“Don’t worry about it,” another similarly pitched voice answered. “My dad says Professor Dumbledore is away right now, and they won’t do anything until he gets back. Come on, don’t you want to see it? Look how big the castle is!”

Children. They were children: two boys, both no older than ten by the looks of them and both wrapped in overlarge traveling cloaks. No doubt that they wanted to get a good look at Britain’s famed school of magic, one that they were too young to attend. And no doubt that their parents had not authorized this nightly escapade. 

Cold fingers wrapped around Penny’s heart. The moon was now hanging full and bright in the cloudless sky. They could not have chosen a worse night to have snuck out.

“Hey, stop right there!” she shouted and then immediately regretted it. She had forgotten to take off the Disillusionment Charm. 

The boys looked wildly around for the source of her command, and seeing nothing, fled onto the grounds with screams of, “Ghost!”

Mentally cursing herself, she removed the charm and chased after them on foot. There was no chance of Apparating now, and that made things all the more difficult. “Wait, stop!” she cried, but it did no good. They kept running, and their small legs moved impossibly faster than her longer ones. 

They had nearly reached the Whomping Willow when she finally resorted to what she had been trying to avoid doing. Taking aim with her wand, she exclaimed, “ _ Immobulus! _ ” and miraculously her spells found their moving marks. The boys froze in place as if they had suddenly turned to stone, and she trotted to their sides in anxious relief. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” she gasped as she released them with a wave of her wand. “Don’t you know there’s a were...there’s danger out here? You need to get home now!”

“It’s not my fault!” the smaller of the two exclaimed fearfully. “He said...he said—”

“Shut up!” the other one snapped. “It was your idea!”

“Was not!”

“That doesn’t matter,” Penny said sternly. “What matters is that—”

A long, guttural howl rose in the distance, and she broke off, her breath freezing in her lungs and throat. Then the Willow jerked, swatting at something that just barely managed to dart out of the reach of its massive branches—something that was flying toward them. The eagle swooped to the ground, and the boys gasped as, right before them, the bird changed into Talbott. His normally stoic face was visibly anxious even in the low moonlight, and he glared at the three of them.

“Penny,” he hissed. “What are you doing? It’s not safe.”

“I know, but these two were sneaking away from the village.”

“Then get them out of here. Our lupine friend is getting agitated.”

“I—”

“BOYS!”

They jumped, and Penny’s words vanished from her tongue at the sight of a burly wizard charging toward them in fury. The kids ducked behind her as if her dainty build could somehow hide them.

“Boys!” the wizard roared again, and Penny flinched as he stopped directly in front of her. “What the hell were you thinking? Do you have an ounce of sense? Running around after dark when there’s a dementor on the loose… I should let it take your souls for showing such stupidity!”

“Dad…” one of them whined.

“Not a word! When we get home—”

“Sir, please keep your voice down,” Talbott said. “We don’t want to draw any attention.”

The man studied him. “Are you the Aurors that are supposed to be hunting this thing?”

“Yes, sir—”

“Wait.” The man had turned his gaze onto Penny and was squinting at her suspiciously. “I know you. You’re Penny Haywood. What are you doing out here? You’re a potioneer.”

She glanced down at the boys, and they stared back at her, their eyes wide.

Talbott smoothly covered her hesitation. “Penny can produce a strong Patronus, which is why she is going to escort you back to the village before—”

Another guttural howl wavered on the air, so loud that it seemed to be coming from inside her, chilling her blood and skin from the inside to out. The Willow began to jerk again as something moved by its roots—something as massive and black as the night around them. 

Penny forgot how to breathe. No, that wasn’t possible. They had a plan. They’d said they had a plan to keep her from escaping. 

Talbott faced them, and she saw something in his eyes that she hadn’t known ever lived there: fear. 

“Run,” he said. “Run now.”


	13. The Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for dropping out of existence after the last cliffhanger. I'm still alive (sort of). There are roughly four chapters left but no guarantee when I'll finish them, so additional apologies ahead of time.

Diana was used to being in pain. The wolf inside her was a particularly vicious one; it always seemed to be scratching at her innards or gnawing on her bones. Pain was her normal, and most of the time, she was capable of living with it. Things only became difficult in the days leading up to the full moon, and even then if she moved and thought as little as possible, then she knew she could get through it. 

The only problem was, though, this week had not been normal. For days she had found herself writhing in agony, unable to stand or even sit up with the pain. She couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t move. They said that the Cruciatus Curse felt like your bones were on fire. She had never felt it, but she wondered if that description was not entirely accurate—simply the next most horrible thing—because she had no idea how one could put extreme suffering into words. She doubted there was a curse more painful than her own. If there was, she wouldn’t let herself live to feel it. 

Sparks flickered at the corner of her vision, and Darius growled at his wand in frustration. “It’s no good,” he said with a gesture at the wall. “I can’t make a dent. We’ll have to attach it to the bed.”

Winger shook his head. “There’s no way that’ll hold.”

With a flick of her wrist, Lily muttered, “ _ Duro, _ ” and within seconds the entire bed had become a smooth, uniform gray. She struck her knuckles against it, and rather than bounce off the mattress, they thunked against solid stone. “Now it will,” she said. 

Darius nodded in approval and began to secure the ends of the chains to the bedposts. Ava carried the harness that was attached to them over to where Diana was slumped against the wall, and she got to work fastening the padded straps around Diana’s torso. Diana endured the treatment without a word. She had retreated far within herself to a place where the wolf and its constant gnawing weren’t as present. 

Ava placed the back of her cool hand against her forehead as she checked for another fever, and Diana was forced to crawl a little way out of the safe place in her mind. The fogginess from the potions she had been given was wearing off, and the meager protection from the pain was vanishing with it. 

Ava gave her a reassuring smile. “It will be over soon,” she murmured. 

“You know I don’t care about that,” Diana said. 

The pain wasn’t the worst part. In fact, in less than an hour, her pain would be gloriously dull compared to how it had been all week. No, the worst part was that she would forget who her friends were. All their memories, all their experiences, all their fights and laughter would be reduced to nothing. And then she would try to kill them. 

“You’ll see us in the morning,” Ava said and gave her a kiss on the head. “You ready?”

_ Of course not,  _ Diana wanted to sass, but an involuntary shudder burned over her skin and into her bones, making her clench her teeth. She could only nod weakly instead. 

Ava slipped the muzzle over her head and adjusted the straps. It was awkwardly big and heavy, and Diana struggled to keep her chin up under its weight. She probably looked ridiculous as always. It was ironic really: they used their gear to restrain her more often than they used it on actual beasts. She supposed in many ways she was a beast. 

Darius gave the chains a firm tug. They held, as did the bed. “We’re secure,” he said. 

“Then that’s everything,” Ava said. “Time to shift.”

Darius gave Diana a goofy grin. “See you on the other side,” he said and then slipped into his shaggy borzoi skin with ease. The others followed him. Winger perched high on top of one of the bedposts in eagle form while the tuxedo cat and the masked osprey that were Lily and Ava respectively sat on the stone mattress. Only Darius remained on the floor, although out of range of a lunge. He showed his teeth in a way that mirrored his human grin and beat his tail against the ground happily. He was trying to reassure her as Ava had done but in his own way. It was a touching but ineffective gesture. The moon was too close for her to feel anything but the rays of its light that were hidden by the roof over her head. 

Night had to have fallen by now. As the moon gained strength in the darkness, it would be impossible to fight the wolf for much longer. It always won no matter how much of a fight she put up. Giving in to it, on the other hand, would be as easy as taking a breath. Another shudder sent heat and chills deep into her body. All the pain and fear and helpless waiting would be over if she just gave in, but at what cost?

She was deluding herself. She didn’t have a choice. 

Diana tilted her head back, and her eyes fixed on a spot on the ceiling where she was certain the moon was just beyond. She took a breath, and when she exhaled, she let go. 

The invisible moonrays burned into her, setting her skin on fire. The flames sank into her bones where they turned the marrow to ice that immediately splintered, and her bones splintered with it. They cracked, snapped, and reformed before cracking, snapping, and reforming again. She crumpled to the floor, desperately wanting to scream, but acid filled her lungs and burned away her air. She scraped her fingers along the floor, reaching for something to ground her, but her fingers had shrunk to stiff nubs. The wood splintered beneath her hands as her nails lengthened to claws, and blood filled her mouth as her sharp teeth suddenly punctured her tongue. Her senses faded away and then sharpened to disorienting clarity. Sounds she had never noticed before—the walls creaking in the wind, mice scurrying beneath the floorboards, the eagle ruffling his feathers agitatedly—became deafening. Smells cut through the acid vapor in her airway, and she a growl rose in her throat as one burned her nose fiercer than the rest. Her mouth watered at the promise of sinking her teeth into its source, but it was too faint to pinpoint, especially since the earthy scents of metal and leather smothered her snout. She tossed her head and pawed at the annoying contraption, but not only did it refuse to come off, her movement was restricted by a device that flattened her fur and dug into her ribs. She shook her head harder, whimpering. She needed to find the source of that smell. She needed to bite into it and shred it into pieces. She needed to taste the tang of its blood. Only then would the acid stop burning her nose and lungs. 

The borzoi trotted over to her, wagging his tail happily. She growled at him, and while he stopped his advance, he appeared unperturbed. She allowed her hackles to lower. She remembered the chestnut dog now. He liked to play with her, and she enjoyed his company. He curled up on the floor, and while she wasn’t tired, she accepted the invitation to lie next to him. He began to lick the top of her head, like she was a pup, and for a moment, she forgot what she had been agitated about. 

The osprey hopped off the bed and nestled into a comfortable position on her back. She remembered this bird too, but the cat that also hopped down was unfamiliar to her. She warily watched the feline approach, but as the cat purred and affectionately butted her head against her chin, she decided that she could be another friend too. She was less certain about the eagle though, for he stayed on top of the bedpost and watched her and the cat carefully. Still, he didn’t seem like a threat and the others didn’t mind him, so she mostly ignored his presence. 

The burning sensation faded to a dull itch at the base of her claws and in the back of her throat. At first, it was easy to dismiss it almost entirely. The other animals distracted her with their antics by climbing over her, rubbing up against her, and harassing each other. Occasionally the itch increased in intensity, and unable to bite down on the thing that would make it go away, she would attempt to claw at her own skin instead. The borzoi always snapped at her when she did that though, so she would reluctantly abandon her efforts in order to avoid upsetting him. 

As time passed, however, the itch became significantly more difficult to resist. The limited hours remaining in the night weighed heavier in the back of her mind, and the fact that she had yet to bite or scratch  _ something  _ made her anxious. She shook her head and growled again at the frustrating cage that prevented her from opening her jaws all the way. The borzoi growled warningly at her, and while she desisted, she did so with much bitterness. She was trapped in this musty, unfamiliar room, and the dog and the other animals were acting like nothing was wrong. 

The borzoi play-bowed, and the osprey and the cat scattered as he pounced. She gently wrestled with him, struggling not to get tangled in her chains, and the effort distracted her once again. He stepped back to allow her to detangle herself, and she shook the dust off her coat, mildly annoyed by the restraints that were still digging into her ribs. 

That’s when she heard it. A sound drifted from far in the distance, too faint to pinpoint but clear enough that the flames and acid crawled back over her skin and into her chest. She sniffed wildly around but failed to catch a scent, and panic rose at the thought of her inability to hunt the thing that was turning her fur into fire. She howled back at the sound and began to tug fiercely at the chains. The borzoi growled warningly once more, but she swatted at him and kept tugging. The harness dug even more painfully into her ribs, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let that thing get away. 

The cat’s ears pricked up and swiveled to catch the sound.  _ What’s that?  _ she asked. 

_ Something’s nearby,  _ the eagle responded.  _ More than one.  _

The osprey puffed up her feathers.  _ Not now! _

_ I’ll deal with it,  _ the eagle said and took off out of the room. 

The borzoi’s hackles raised, and he let out a longer, more continuous growl.  _ Stop that,  _ he ordered as she kept tugging. Unable to bite him, she tossed her head and slammed her muzzle into his snout, and he yelped and drew back. The cat and the osprey both hissed at her, but as smaller animals they didn’t dare come closer. 

Then, clear in the distance came the angry howl of a creature that was neither of her kind nor of the kind of the other animals in the room, and the noise caused the fire to raze her body with an intensity beyond comprehension. Snarling, she dug her claws into the ground and heaved.  _ Snap!  _ One strap on the harness broke. 

The borzoi charged her, and his attack was the catalyst she needed. She lunged at him, and  _ snap! snap! snap!  _ she pulled free of her restraints and crashed into the slender dog, knocking him into the wall. And then she ran. Claws tapping and feet sliding on the wood, she dashed out of the room and nearly fell down the stairs in her mad scramble for the source of that unnatural howl. 

The rotten wood walls and deteriorating musty floors were unfamiliar to her, but her instincts told her the way to go. Damp earth and cold stone assaulted her nostrils, and she turned toward it to launch into the open entranceway of a tunnel. It was there that she caught the scent. The faint smell that had been faintly tickling her nose and throat all this time now scorched her with its freshness, and she howled excitedly at the promise of prey. The hard ground began to slope upward beneath her paws, and she detected scents of grass and open air mixed in with the other smells. She was close now. Her jaws were still caged, but she didn’t care. She didn’t need her teeth to tear her prey to pieces. 

The borzoi and the other animals were pounding down the tunnel after her, but they were too late. Nothing would stop her from this hunt. She would end the pain—the horrible, scalding pain—and she would end it with the creature’s blood. 

The tunnel roof broke to be replaced with an open stretch of grass and stars, and she bared her teeth. The hunt had begun. 


	14. Full Moon

“Run. Run now.”

Penny watched as the Whomping Willow slammed its massive branches to the ground, simultaneously stopping the werewolf in its approach and blocking it from her view. The few seconds the tree had granted them were enough for Penny to snap out of her initial panic, and she shoved the boys toward the astonished wizard. “What are you doing?” she cried. “Move!”

They took off at a full sprint for the edge of the castle grounds, and she desperately hoped the wizard would Apparate the three of them to someplace far away. Her worst nightmares had come true. No one truly was safe. 

“Penny, I said run!” Talbott commanded. 

But it was too late. The Willow struck the ground again and again, sending leaves and bark flying, but the black beast wove through the branches like it was made of shadow. Then the tree swung wide, missing the creature by several meters, and a gap appeared in its leaves. The creature took its chance and launched through it, out of reach of the tree, and immediately set its sights on the most tempting target—not the petrified Penny or the firm-standing Talbott but the fleeing prey that had yet to escape the grounds. The beast charged, appearing as no more than a dark blur, and it streaked toward the wizard and two boys. The smaller boy glanced back and yelped with terror. They weren’t going to make it in time. 

Talbott launched a spell, and it struck the creature’s back, sending it stumbling to a halt. It rounded in his direction with a snarl, and Penny got her first good look at the incarnation of her greatest fear. Perhaps she didn’t remember the werewolf that had killed Scarlett clearly, or perhaps that one had been weak for its kind because this one—the werewolf now stalking toward Talbott—was monstrous. Muscles rippled beneath its black fur, and its powerful paws looked like they could shatter the earth beneath them. In many ways, it resembled a massive wolf, but Penny knew it was far from the normally reclusive animal. She had seen wolves before on trips with her father to the zoo, and this was no wolf. Its snout was too short, its tail too tufted, and its eyes too human, and it possessed a loathing that could exist in no other animal. The potent, unnatural emotion filled the creature’s wild eyes and dripped from its wicked teeth. It moved as if the muzzle on its snout meant nothing; it would find a way to kill them no matter how or how long it took.

Talbott raised his wand but did not fire out of apparent fear of making the wrong move at the wrong time. Unexpectedly, Penny reacted first. She didn’t recall raising her wand, but she most definitely had by the time the spell left her mouth. “ _ Stupefy! _ ” she shouted, and the beam of red light struck the werewolf in the chest just as its front paws left the ground. The beast toppled over, momentarily stunned. 

Talbott swore. “It’s going to kill them,” he said. 

She followed his gaze to discover that the Whomping Willow was still moving agitatedly, and she realized that the tree had not in fact missed the werewolf—it had found a different set of targets. A shaggy dog yipped as a branch nearly caught his tail, and a cat raced for the base of the trunk as wood splintered over her head. Talbott was right. The tree was trying  _ very  _ hard to kill them.

A growl tore her attention back to the werewolf, which was back on its feet and was now very much fixated on her. Her own feet locked into place against her will, and she wondered if this was how Scarlett had died: staring into the eyes of a person that had been lost to insanity. The werewolf charged with impossible speed, and Talbott’s spells flew over its head. He cried her name, yelling at her to run, but she couldn’t. She was frozen just like all those times before, both with Lily and with Scarlett. 

A large bird dove, and then Avalon was standing in front of her with her arms spread wide. “Diana!” she roared. “Don’t!”

For a split second the werewolf halted. And then it pounced. 

Snapped out of her stupor by Avalon’s arrival, Penny dove to the side as Talbott launched another spell. He wasn’t fast enough. Neither was Avalon. The werewolf crashed into the witch and knocked her on her back, and while Avalon got a grip on the straps of the muzzle, the beast dug its claws into her shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain. Talbott’s next spell struck the werewolf in the side, and it tumbled off Avalon only to be back on its feet within seconds. 

“Brooks!” Talbott started to shout something, but he was drowned out by a roaring bark as the borzoi streaked toward them. The dog slammed into the beast, and the two tussled, snapping and growling at each other. The cat bounded after them while in the distance the Whomping Willow stood unusually still and quiet. 

Talbott turned to help Avalon, but she waved him away. “I’m fine,” she said despite the blood that was running through her fingers as she tried to cover the gashes on her cheek and shoulder. “Go help the others. It’s just a scratch. I said go help the others!”

Visibly frustrated, Talbott moved to Penny and pulled her to her feet. “Haywood,” he began to chastise, “I swear if you don’t—”

“Winger, my brother!” Avalon shouted. 

He silently finished his sentence with a warning glare at Penny and then took off after Lily and Darius.

The other two Animagi seemed to have developed a strategy where they took turns holding the werewolf’s attention. It was Lily’s turn now, and she was fleeing in cat form while the black-furred beast snapped at her tail. A lean wizard that must have been Darius cast bolts of light at her pursuer, and one bolt sparked against the werewolf’s pelt. Angered but not slowed, the beast changed targets and ran after him instead, but Darius was already sprinting on all fours in the opposite direction. Lily, human again, held her wand at the ready and waited for an opening. It was an effective plan so far, but…

“We won’t be able to keep this up all night,” Avalon grunted as she climbed unsteadily to her feet. She had given up trying to stem the bleeding, and while her spaulder had lessened the damage to her shoulder, blood from the gash on her face was dripping off her chin and staining her clothes. “You should get out of here,” she told Penny not unkindly. “Diana won’t calm down while you’re nearby. We can keep her distracted until you’re clear of the grounds like the others.”

Guilt clawed at Penny’s chest as she realized that Avalon’s injuries were her fault. “I’m sorry,” she said mournfully. 

Maybe it was a trick of the moonlight, but Avalon appeared to be smiling. “Hate to break it to you, but it’s not the first time I’ve done that, so don’t go thinking you’re special or anything.” 

Penny almost laughed, although whether it was out of amusement or hysteria she couldn’t tell. “You’re mad,” she said, and she meant it as a compliment. 

“Most likely,” Avalon agreed. “Now go before Winger throws a fit.” Without waiting to see if Penny would obey, the osprey flew off to join the fight. 

Rebellion didn’t cross Penny’s mind anymore because everything Lily had told her had been true. She hated the thought of running and abandoning the others, but she had lost any chance of proving her worth when she had frozen again. She moved toward the edge of the grounds as fast as she could without drawing attention to herself. This wasn’t her fight. 

“No, no, no!” came a cry behind her. She looked back and then instantly regretted it. Perhaps sensing that its prey was escaping, the werewolf was ignoring the witches and wizards chasing after it and was bolting toward her. 

“Just run!” Lily shouted, waving her arms over her head. “Run!”

For once, Penny did as ordered. She sprinted for the road where the wizard and boys had disappeared, but it seemed as if it was hundreds of meters away. Her legs felt oddly stiff and clumsy, and she stumbled every few steps. Air tore through her lungs too quickly, and she felt lightheaded from panic and exertion. Streaks of light flew by her, clearly having missed their target, and she could hear the beats of paws pounding through the grass, getting closer, closer…

A heavy weight struck her back and sent her falling to the ground face first, and she tasted blood as her teeth bit down on her tongue. Claws put uncomfortable pressure on her skin through her cloak, and hot, putrid breath panted on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes, too afraid to move even if she had been able to. She didn’t want to die this way—like her friend as a horrible mess of shredded fabric and flesh. It wasn’t fair. 

She shouldn’t have put on that cloak. 

Light burst behind her eyelids, and something thudded to the ground beside her to writhe and snarl bitterly. The paws on her back changed to hands, and the weight lifted and pulled her upright with it. She opened her eyes just as Darius released her. 

“Sorry about that,” he said. “You alright?”

She spat out the blood in her mouth, which she supposed wasn’t reassuring. “Fine,” she said shakily, although she felt more than a little sick. 

“You’re killing her!” Avalon exclaimed, and Darius stiffened. The werewolf was thrashing on the ground with rope tangled around its limbs, torso, and neck. 

“Penny needs to get to safety first,” Talbott argued. 

“She can’t breathe!”

Darius gave Penny a little push. “Go,” he said urgently. “While you have a few more seconds.”

Penny didn’t have time to take more than a single step before she heard a distinct  _ snap!  _ Impossible. That binding was magical. Few things had the strength to break it. 

Darius shoved her behind him as Avalon yanked Talbott out of reach of the werewolf’s claws, but as quickly as it had freed itself, it went down again in another burst of light. Lily lowered her wand, but rather than appear triumphant, her face was pale even in the moonlit darkness. “Oh no,” she breathed. 

Unhurt, the furious werewolf stood once more, and Penny’s legs nearly gave out at the sight of it. The muzzle, which until now had protected them from being bitten, lay broken in the grass. 

“Brooks,” Talbott whispered.

“Not yet,” Avalon said, but she looked uncertain. 

Quickly shifting back to a cat, Lily turned tail and fled, and the werewolf shot after her in pursuit. It overtook the smaller creature in half a heartbeat, and to Penny’s horror, it bit down on the cat’s neck and shook her vigorously. Her small body jolted side-to-side, like a chew toy at a dog’s mercy, and with one last toss of its head, the werewolf let go. She tumbled through the air to collapse on the ground some distance away, her form limp and unmoving. 

Penny tried to scream her name, but the sound that came out was shrill and unintelligible. Darius barked fiercely and tackled the werewolf in his dog form once again, only this time he was at the risk of being bitten back. 

“Brooks!” Talbott shouted louder.

“I can’t!” Avalon exclaimed desperately. “I can’t hit Darius!”

“Don’t make me do this!” he warned. 

Penny both registered and failed to comprehend what they were implying. Surely they weren’t talking about killing the werewolf...killing Diana? It was...she was a person. It wasn’t her fault she had turned into a monster. She didn’t have control. 

Lily’s words from before—about taking an innocent life—struck Penny like a blow to the ribs. Avalon’s face was tortured, and Penny realized with a shock that she truly would do it. She would kill her friend to save the rest of them. 

Darius launched himself onto the werewolf’s back, and she shook and bucked until he tumbled off, creating a gap between them. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for a well-placed spell. 

“Now, Brooks!” Talbott ordered, but he needn’t have bothered. Avalon hadn’t hesitated. 

“ _ Confringo! _ ” she shouted, and bright, hot light scorched through the air, aimed at Diana’s chest. 

At least it had been until Penny leaped in front of it. Lily had been right about another thing: when she wasn’t looking directly at a werewolf, Penny  _ was  _ a goddess under pressure. “ _ Protego! _ ” she exclaimed, and the curse ricocheted off her shield to strike the ground by Talbott’s and Avalon’s feet. They dove away from the blast with shouts of surprise as dirt and grass rained down on their heads. The werewolf, less than impressed by her rescue, faced Penny with her teeth exposed in a vicious, hungry snarl. Terror shivered down Penny’s body and froze all sensations in her legs and feet. She hadn’t thought this through. Then again, Hufflepuffs weren’t known for acting with logic. They acted with feeling, and that is precisely what she did when she said the first spell that popped into her mind: “ _ Expecto Patronum. _ ”

Blinding silver-white light made her eyes water as a creature the size of a horse leapt from her wand and stood protectively before her. The creature beat its leathery wings and stamped its hooves threateningly, and to her surprise but not astonishment, the werewolf lowered her tail and sunk into a submissive position. Penny wasn’t quite sure why her instinct had been to summon her Patronus. Maybe she had been seeking comfort from her fear, or maybe it was because her thoughts had been on her duel with Lily. Either way, it had felt right.

“That’s brilliant, Pen!”

Penny’s concentration nearly slipped at the sound of Lily’s voice, and she glanced to her side to see her friend hurrying toward her, looking remarkably uninjured. The werewolf’s hackles began to rise again, but Lily waved her wand with the same motion as Penny. A silvery cheetah burst forth to join her thestral, and together the two animals herded the werewolf back toward the Willow. She shifted her paws back slowly with her tail between her legs. Lily coaxed her cheetah into a more playful mood, and Penny followed suit by having her thestral lower its wings. Darius, still a dog, trotted over and play-bowed to Diana, and for the first time since Penny had seen her, she relaxed into a nonaggressive stance. 

Darius and the Patronuses nudged her a bit faster in the direction of the motionless tree while Talbott and Avalon walked close behind Penny and Lily. If the werewolf realized that two of the animals were not tangible, then they would be in more trouble than before. No one dared to say anything, and they kept their movements as small and steady as possible. When they reached the base of the tree, they directed each other in silence. While the two Patronuses stood guard, Avalon and Darius herded the werewolf down the tunnel in their Animagus forms, and Talbott waited to give them a head start before following. 

“Keep watch at the edge of the grounds,” he told Lily, and it occurred to all of them that they should have done that in the first place. “I’ll come get you when it’s safe.”

He left without addressing Penny, and she wondered if he was upset with her. No, of course he was upset with her. It wasn’t hard to fathom why. She had jumped between the Blasting Curse and a werewolf. It was a miracle she was still alive.

Dear Merlin, she had jumped between the Blasting Curse and a werewolf. Her thestral dissolved into the darkness as everything that had happened came crashing down on her. She thought she might be sick. 

Lily grabbed her hand and with a quiet, “Come on,” pulled her away from the tree. When they were safely off the grounds, Penny threw herself at her friend to worriedly check the back of her neck for bite marks. Lily fought off her fussing. “I’m fine, Pen. Pen. Penny. I’m fine! Look, I’m fine!” She held her hair away from her neck to reveal a red mark but no blood. “She just got me by the scruff. There’s no broken skin, see? I’m not going to turn into a were—ow!” Penny had angrily punched her in the shoulder. 

“Don’t joke about that!” she scolded. “I’d thought I’d lost you too!”

Lily hushed her with a worried glance back toward the tree. “I’m not joking,” she said quietly, squeezing Penny’s hand. “Look, it’s not over yet, so we can talk about this later, alright?”

Penny squeezed her hand back—harder than she meant to—by way of silent agreement and followed her to sit on the low stone wall that lined the road. Drawing Scarlett’s cloak tighter around her, Penny waited for both the darkness and the adrenaline in her system to leave. There were still a good five or six hours until dawn, which meant that this had been the beginning of an extremely long night. 


	15. Sunrise

Penny and Lily remained completely silent for the first hour on watch. They kept their heads ducked against the wind and stared intently down the dark road, although neither expected to see anything. By the second hour, Lily fell asleep. Her head dipped forward onto her chest, and Penny had to catch her shoulder to keep her from falling off the wall.

“Sorry,” she yawned, and she rubbed her eyes and squinted at the horizon as if it had insulted her. “I’m awake, I swear.” 

“We should take shifts,” Penny said.

Lily looked relieved. “You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Wake me when you get tired then.” Pulling her legs up onto the wall, she shifted, and then the tuxedo cat was safely curled up on the stone, breathing steadily within seconds. Penny noticed a chunk of fur missing on her neck, but as Lily had said, there was no blood or broken skin. 

Another series of chills ran through Penny’s body—and not from the wind. She pulled the hood up on the cloak and let the weight of the fabric comfort her. It had taken a full hour for her to stop shivering so intensely, and she was still wide-awake and alert as if another attack was going to happen the next time she took a breath. 

She couldn’t wrap her head around everything that had just occurred. She had faced a werewolf. No one had died. But someone could have died. Someone could  _ still  _ die. The werewolf was still out there. She could get loose again, and Penny didn’t know if she could—

Penny clamped a hand over her mouth and took several deep breaths through her nose, stopping the ascent of her heart into her throat. She was letting her anxiety get the better of her again. Lily was right there beside her, alive and well. They were fine. 

Penny’s fingers brushed against the cedar wand in her pocket, and she drew it with a sweeping flourish. The silvery thestral lit up the air before her and bowed its withered head in friendly greeting. She ran her hand along its cheek, feeling as if she was stroking liquid light. She rarely needed to call upon her Patronus, but today she wanted its presence. Rather, she wanted the reminder of what it represented. She had been able to see thestrals ever since Scarlett’s death, and they had scared her at first. They looked like incarnations of death with their bat-like wings and skeletal bodies, but when she had finally gotten the courage to approach one, she had discovered what amazingly gentle and beautiful creatures they were. They had become one of the first bright lights in her life after the loss of her friend, so it was only fitting that one should be her protector whenever it got too dark. 

Finally calmer, Penny let the Patronus fade like a wisp of smoke. It wasn’t gone though. It never was. 

The cat stirred but didn’t open her eyes, and Penny had no desire to wake her. She wasn’t tired, and she doubted she would be for a long time. While Penny hadn’t discovered her Patronus until adulthood, Lily had found hers during their fourth year at Hogwarts—a year after she had become an Animagus, and in contrast to the other Animagi Penny knew, Lily’s Patronus didn’t match her Animagus form. When Penny had asked her about it, Lily had responded that she wasn’t the same person that she had been when she had first transformed. She hadn’t needed to say anything else. They had both gone through too much too early in life, and it had directly influenced the kind of the people they had become, albeit in different ways. But that wasn’t entirely a bad thing. 

The next hours slipped by stealthily, and it wasn’t until the sky began to lighten to a pleasant pink-tinged vanilla that Penny realized how much time had passed. Her back suddenly felt achy and stiff and the entire lower half of her body felt numb from sitting on the hard surface for so long. She would regret it in the next day or so. 

Perhaps sensing the change in light, the cat lifted her head, and then Lily was back beside her in a flash. “Penny,” she hissed, still keeping her voice low, “I told you to wake me when you got tired.”

“I didn’t get tired,” Penny said, although her words became less convincing when she had to stifle a yawn.

“When’s the last time you slept?”

That was a good question, and Penny could only shrug in response.

Lily sighed. “You’re going to bed when we get back.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Penny joked.

After a beat of trying to fight it, Lily smiled at her attempt at lightheartedness. She glanced at the horizon, where the tiniest sliver of a scarlet sun was beginning to peek over the hillside, and then glanced back at Penny with a questioning look. “Nice cloak,” she said.

Penny absentmindedly tucked her hands within the fabric. “It belonged to a friend,” she said quietly.

Lily nodded her understanding but thankfully didn’t comment.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Penny asked, tilting her head to get another look at the back of her neck. 

Lily’s eyes widened incredulously. “Am I alright? Merlin’s beard, Pen…” She put her fingers to her lips as if praying and muttered, “Where do I start? Where do I even start…”

Penny cringed. “Okay, I get it,” she placated. “You don’t need to lecture me. I—”

“Lecture you?” Lily exclaimed to her surprise. “You were brilliant! I mean, you were bloody reckless, and I should kill you myself, but what you did with your Patronus…”

“That was your idea.”

“But you didn’t see me thinking of that out there, did you?”

“But none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for me,” Penny said mournfully. “The potion, losing control of Diana, and—ow!” She rubbed her shoulder, which Lily had struck rather hard.

“Will you stop that?” Lily sighed in exasperation. “When will it sink in that you saved us? You saved those kids, you saved me...you even saved Diana. You’re a hero, Pen, but you never let yourself believe that.”

“Because everything that happened was pure luck,” Penny said, her voice rising in volume. “You could have died, Lily. Avalon, Darius, Talbott—anyone could have died, and you nearly did.”

Lily shook her head. “It wasn’t luck,” she said calmly. “At least, I don’t think so. Maybe you saw it too. That had to be why you…” She trailed off.

“What?”

“I’m saying you’re right,” she said. “Diana could have killed me, but she didn’t, and I think that’s because she was still there. At least a little.”

Penny went quiet while she thought about this. She had seen it too: the moment of hesitation before the werewolf had tackled Avalon, the fact that she had grabbed Lily by the scruff instead of breaking her neck… “I think that’s what finally clicked for me,” she said. “That she’s a person and not a monster. It didn’t make it any less scary, but it helped. Just a bit.”

She could sense Lily giving her a mushy look out of the corner of her eye, and it made her unusually uncomfortable. She looked at the sunrise instead, which had changed color to a fiery orange, until Lily began to watch it too.

“You were right though,” she said. “About me not being able to take an innocent life.”

Lily groaned, clearly having lost her patience with her. “That’s a good thing!” she insisted. “You came up with the solution we needed, even though the rest of us had already given up. Hey,” she wrapped an arm around Penny’s shoulders and leaned close to her ear, “I’m proud of you,” she whispered and then kissed the side of her head.

Penny playfully bumped her shoulder. “You’re always a smooth-talker, Curse-Breaker.”

“I mean it!”

“I know.”

Someone abruptly cleared their throat, and Penny and Lily jumped as the sound appeared close behind them. They twisted around to see Talbott standing there with his arms crossed and his expression stony. “It’s over,” he said. “You can come in now.”

Penny felt every muscle in her body relax, and as they did, she suddenly felt extremely exhausted, like she hadn’t slept in days—which was something that wasn’t completely inaccurate. It was over. They were safe.

“Is everyone okay?” Lily asked.

“Relatively speaking,” Talbott said, which wasn’t exactly reassuring. “Lily, if you want to see for yourself, I need you to subdue the Willow again.”

“Right. Lead the way.”

Talbott began walking back toward the tree without so much as a glance at Penny. Well aware that she was in trouble, she fell into step with Lily several paces behind him. “Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?” she whispered only for Lily to hear. Although, she didn’t particularly care if he’d heard anyway.

The smile in Lily’s response was audible. “He’ll get over it,” she said. “You scared him, that’s all.” She raised her voice. “You know Talbott; he likes to sulk.”

Talbott didn’t say anything, but he did pick up his pace. Lily chuckled, and they continued toward the tree with the sun casting orange light on their backs. It was finally dawn.

 

* * * *

 

The Americans were a mess. When Penny and Lily followed Talbott into the second-floor bedroom of the Shrieking Shack, they found its occupants covered from head to toe in dirt and, in the case of Avalon, blood. A witch that must have been Diana was curled up in a blanket on the floor, shivering uncontrollably while Avalon kneeled beside her to calm her down, but the more Avalon murmured to her, the more she shook and cried. A visibly frustrated Darius kept attempting to wipe the dried blood off Avalon’s face with a rag, but she repeatedly shoved him back.

“Ava!” he snapped. “You’re making it worse.”

She ignored him and stayed focused on Diana. “You’re okay, Di,” she said. “Look, everyone’s okay. No one got hurt. It’s okay.”

Diana weakly swatted away all of Avalon’s attempts to touch her. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“For what? I’m okay. Everyone’s okay.”

“Avalon!” Darius shouted again, and Penny understood. Avalon’s appearance was doing nothing to help the situation.

“You should have done it,” Diana said into the blanket. Avalon froze, and her expression held all the shock and hurt of having been slapped. 

“Darius,” Talbott said quietly. “Switch out.”

Darius nodded and passed the rag to Talbott, who pulled the stupefied Avalon away from the hysterical werewolf. Talbott took over wiping the blood off Avalon while Darius took her place by Diana’s side. Lily kneeled beside her as well and began to murmur things Penny couldn’t hear.

Penny scanned the room. There were deep claw marks on the walls and floor, and a broken harness lay tossed to the side. Her eyes traced the twisted chains attached to it up to the cracked bed, which for some reason had been turned to stone. It looked like the setting of a horror story—the kind they might have told each other as kids on the nights they stayed up way too late in the dormitory, but those stories had only been fun because they knew they didn’t have to live them. 

“Hey. Hey, Di,” Darius said. “Di, guess what? The full moon’s over, so you won. Ava and I definitely had the most points, so we’ll get you a whole bag of whatever candy you want. How’s that sound?” 

Rather than answer, Diana hid her face behind the blanket. Frowning in concern, Lily picked up her potions’ satchel off the floor and began to sort through the vials inside.

“No one is staying here,” Penny said. The words had left her mouth before she had reached the decision to say them, and the others looked at her in surprise. “No one is staying here,” she repeated firmly. “Get your things. Everyone is coming back to the Cauldron.”

Diana quieted, and Avalon and Darius exchanged a relieved look. “Thank you,” Avalon said tiredly.

“It’s the least I can do,” Penny said.

Avalon shook her head in disbelief. “You’ve already done so much more.”

It took only a short time for the Magizoologists to gather their few belongings and get ready to leave. Diana had stopped crying and was quietly sitting up against the wall with her head hanging low. Lily told Penny that she had convinced her to take a mild Calming Draught. It wouldn’t make her drowsy, but it would allow her to think more clearly, which was something all of them were struggling with in their various states of exhaustion. 

Together, they Apparated to the Scarlett Cauldron, and the six of them crowded into the flat. Talbott showed Darius to Lily’s bath, while Lily and Penny escorted the other witches into Penny’s. Penny and Avalon helped Diana out of her torn and dirty clothes, but the second her shirt came off, Lily turned red and looked away.

“I, uh…” she stuttered, “I’m going to make sure Darius doesn’t need anything.” She left the room quickly.

Avalon watched her go curiously. “She modest?” she chuckled.

Penny smiled. “Conditionally.”

Avalon thought about this for a moment and then laughed. “Make sure Darius knows that,” she said. “I think he’s starting to like her.”

Diana sat in continued silence on the edge of the tub. She hadn’t said anything since the Shrieking Shack, and Penny didn’t know how to start a conversation. Penny had been living in terror of this witch until just moments ago, but it was hard to recall that same terror now that she was in front of her. Her skin, which had an ashen tinge to it, clung to her ribs, and her dark hair and eyes had become dull. She looked nothing like the monstrous, muscular wolf that had attacked them within the past few hours. Instead, she looked like someone that had been sick for a long time, long enough that the effects extended beyond physical. 

Avalon helped Diana take off the rest of her clothes, and that’s when Penny noticed the scars. They were everywhere—crawling up her neck, criss-crossing her arms, sliding down her stomach—and they weren’t just claw marks; there were bite marks as well. Penny’s eyes locked on one ring of indentations around her wrist that was deep enough that the skin had become malformed. It looked like she had tried to tear her own hand off.

“Like what you see?” Diana asked. Penny jumped, but Diana smiled weakly. Even the simple facial gesture appeared to hurt, although there was surprising strength in her voice that hadn’t been there before. “It’s alright,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Penny apologized anyway.

“Don’t be. Werewolves leave scars. They have to.” She traced the ring on her wrist. “If there’s no one around them, they leave scars on themselves. I have scars, Ava has scars...you have scars.”

“I don’t—” Penny began.

“I didn’t say they had to be physical,” Diana said. She met Penny’s eyes, and there was a clarity behind her brown gaze that was familiar, although she couldn’t place it. “Ava says you’ve come across werewolves before.”

Penny looked to Avalon questioningly, and the latter mouthed,  _ Lily.  _ Of course. 

Penny took a breath and carefully gauged Diana’s reaction as she offered her response. “A werewolf killed my best friend,” she said with unexpected calmness. She didn’t remember the last time she had said that aloud, and it felt oddly freeing, like a weight had lifted. “Her name was Scarlett,” she added.

Avalon looked like she might be sick, but Diana nodded serenely. “You saw it?” she asked. 

“Yes.”

“Then that is something we have in common.” Diana’s gaze dropped, and Penny realized she was purposely not looking at Avalon. “I remember every time I’ve ever changed, including all the times I’ve had no control. I remember every person I’ve ever attacked. Every scar, every drop of blood—it never goes away, does it? No matter which side of the madness you stand on.”

Penny felt her hands begin to shake, and she tucked them back in her cloak. “I’m sorry,” she breathed, only because she didn’t know what else to say.

Diana smiled again. “Why are you apologizing to me? I’m the one that should—”

 “Don’t,” Penny said sharply, and Diana blinked at her, startled. “If I have nothing to apologize for, then you don’t either. So, don’t.”

Diana cast an inquisitive glance at Avalon, and the latter threw her hands up in the air in exaggerated frustration. “Unbelievable,” she muttered. “You never listen to me. You never freaking listen, and now...ugh!”

Then Diana did something unexpected: she laughed. It was a rough, scratchy laugh, as if she didn’t do it often, but it was so genuine that it made Penny laugh too.

“I saw you, you know,” she told Penny, and her face abruptly became serious again, although her eyes had become warm. “I remember what you did, and I guess that means I owe you my life. So, thank you.” She turned to face Avalon, who was scowling. “Thank you both,” she said softly.

“You’re so stupid!” Avalon exploded and then burst into tears. 

“I, uh...I’ll let you two talk,” Penny said, and she left the bathroom to give them a moment. 

Her bedroom was empty when she entered it, so she took the moment to put clean blankets and pillows on the bed. She had purposely designed the room to be homey and calming with the wooden furniture, the patchwork quilt on the bed, and the plants in the windowsill, so she figured this would be the best place for their guests to stay. She also wasn’t ready to go back to the others. Not quite yet. 

A thought she often avoided came to mind, and this time she let it surface. What kind of werewolf had killed Scarlett? Had he been a wicked one like Fenrir Greyback that had been hunting for sport, or had he simply lost control? Had he relished his kill, or had he gone through as much pain as Penny had afterward? She didn’t know, and she doubted she would ever find out. Surprisingly, she realized that at that moment the answer didn’t matter to her, and for the first time since Scarlett’s death, she felt pity for her attacker—no matter what kind of victim he was. 

“Are you alright?” Lily had returned and was leaning against the doorway. 

“Yeah,” Penny said, and she meant it. She wouldn’t get over her fear of werewolves, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t learn to sympathize with them. 

“That’s good.”

Lily moved to help her finish making the bed, and they worked together comfortably, feeling no need to talk. There was nothing left to say.

The American witches came out of the bathroom a short time later—Diana now wrapped in a clean towel, Avalon still a mess. Both of their eyes appeared red and irritated.

“Let me put some Murtlap Essence on those scratches,” Lily said to Avalon. “It’ll help.” Avalon quietly thanked her and they left the room again, leaving Penny and Diana alone, so Penny helped her find some clean clothes that would fit. She ended up in a simple pair of trousers and a red shirt with “Wigtown Wanderers” scrawled across the chest. 

“What’s wrong?” Penny asked when she noticed Diana gazing at her with a strange expression. “Do you not like the team? I can find something more plain if you want.”

“That’s not it,” Diana said. “I was just thinking about your Patronus.”

It occurred to Penny that Diana could see thestrals too, if not everyone that was in the flat. She briefly wondered if they held the same significance for the others as they did for her, but she didn’t have to think long to figure out the answer. “Yes?” she asked softly. 

“Do you think…” Diana asked hesitantly. “Would you mind showing it to me again? Later, I mean.”

“Sure,” Penny said with a smile. “I can do something even better too. How about I ask Lily to show you the local herd? She befriended them years ago.”

Diana’s face lit up, and every part of her seemed brighter than Penny had seen yet. “I would love that,” she said.

“It’s a plan then.”

Once everyone was clean, bandaged, and had all other needs tended to, they began to depart to their respective sleeping places, too exhausted to care that the sun was rising. Avalon and Diana would sleep in Penny’s bed while Darius opted to sleep at their feet in his Animagus form. Penny had tried to offer him other options, but all three of them seemed content with the situation. She stopped pushing when she realized it would be best not to separate them. 

Penny would share the remaining bed with Lily, to which the latter had already departed, and that left the couch to Talbott. He had his room at the inn of course, but she sensed that he didn’t want to let them out of his sight, which was something she knew she needed to finally address.

“You shouldn’t still be awake,” he told her when she entered the main room. It was the first he had spoken to her since the battle, and he didn’t sound happy about it.

“I’m going to bed now,” she said. 

“Good,” he replied tersely and started adjusting the blanket on the couch with unusually intense interest. 

Penny didn’t wait for him to drag out the problem and beat around the bush in his typical Talbott fashion, nor was she going to fall into an argument when she failed to tip-toe around him. She would deal with him on her terms, so it was for that reason that, without warning, she crossed the room and hugged him. He stiffened for several long beats but relaxed when she refused to let go.

“I swear you’re just as bad as Lily,” he muttered, his voice coming from somewhere by the top of her head. 

“That’s impossible and you know it,” Penny said.

“I’m mad at her too.”

“I know.”

“At least I know to worry about her. I can’t afford to worry about you too.”

“I’m sorry I scared you,” she said honestly. 

“I’ll forgive you if you promise not to do something that stupid again.”

“I’ll try, but no promises.”

“It will have to do,” he sighed.

She released him with a grin. “Goodnight, Talbott.”

His lips twitched, which was about as close to a smile as she was going to get, but it was good enough. “You mean good morning.”

She laughed. “Good morning it is.”


	16. A Spoonful of Sugar

Lily wasn’t sure what woke her up first: Penny’s elbow in her ribs, or the Intruder Charm. For the second time that week, a quiet gong reverberated through the flat, and Lily felt it deep within her chest. She hopped out of bed in an instant, shoving Penny’s arm away from her as she did so, and grabbed both her wand and glasses off the night table.

“Wha…?” Penny asked groggily as she raised her head, her hair covering half her face. 

Dressed in an oversized t-shirt and track bottoms, Lily hurried into the main room to find Talbott already alert and on his feet, his wand in his hand as well. He was barefoot and had stripped down to his undershirt and trousers, but the way he squared his shoulders and held his chin up said he was ready to fight like an Auror in any state. 

A series of rough blows struck the door, and before Lily could calm her startled thoughts enough to focus her Legilimency, a voice called urgently from the other side, “Come on, come on, open up! Please open up. Oh, please, please, please…”

She darted across the room and tore the door open to reveal the distressed form of Jae Kim, who was impossibly more of a mess than usual. Not only were his hair and clothes unkempt, but there were bags under his eyes, black powder on his face, and for some strange reason, mismatched shoes on his feet. He looked like he might have come from a wild party if not for his terrified expression. 

“What’s going on?” Darius asked. He was standing in the door to Penny’s room while Avalon and Diana cautiously peeked around the frame. Penny, in her nightgown, had appeared as well, and Lily saw Jae’s eyes scan each of them, taking in their bruised and half-dressed appearances. She realized that they made a strange sight of their own, especially since it had to have been close to noon.

“Is anyone hurt?” Jae asked sharply. 

“What?” Lily said.

“Is anyone hurt?” he repeated. “Last night, did anyone get hurt?”

“N-no,” she stuttered. 

He tilted his head toward the ceiling and blew out a breath, and his shoulders slumped in visible relief. “Thank goodness,” he said and looked back at Lily. “The Powdered Moonstone I gave you, where is it?”

Lily was at a loss for words, but thankfully Penny answered for her. “Downstairs,” she said. “There’s still plenty left.”

“Show me.”

Penny nodded and led him to the brewing room with Lily and Talbott in tow, and she disappeared into the storeroom to retrieve the jar. Jae tapped his fingers impatiently on a table. Lily couldn’t recall if she had ever seen him this panicked. He was usually the most laid back person in existence, not  _ this. _

Penny returned shortly with a jar of a shimmery, light blue powder, and she dumped a handful into a bowl for him to see. He dipped his finger into the bowl and touched the tip to his tongue, and his face twisted in disgust. “It’s the same with this batch too,” he muttered. “Sugar.”

Penny rubbed the powder between her fingers with a gasp. “How?”

“Someone thought they could make a few extra Galleons off the Moonstone shortage,” Jae said. “Mix a bit of real Moonstone with a similar, cheaper substance and no one will know the difference...at least until you try to make a potion with it.” 

“The Wolfsbane Potion,” Penny breathed.

“You didn’t botch the potion afterall,” Lily said with a grin. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Penny gave a distressed groan. “I should have realized though,” she said. “It’s my job to know my ingredients.”

“No,” Jae said, “it’s my job to get you  _ good  _ ingredients. I’ve worked with you guys for years. You know me, you should be able to trust me, but I messed it up.”

“We don’t blame you,” Lily insisted. “Either of you. You’re not the bad guy here.”

“Exactly,” he said, and he gazed at them with a determined expression. “And I’m going to make this right. Stay here. I’ll be right back.” And before they could respond, he Disapparated with a sharp crack, leaving them to stare at each other in bewilderment. 

“I guess we shouldn’t go back to bed,” Talbott sighed.

Penny rubbed her eyes and nodded reluctantly in agreement. “I’ll go get dressed.”

Lily waited in the brewing room while the others went upstairs to get ready for the day, but Jae didn’t come back while they were gone, nor did he appear when they returned ten minutes later—Talbott in his coat and Penny in a casual blouse and jeans. Lily didn’t follow suit but rather stayed seated cross-legged on top of one of the tables, anxiously twirling her laurel wand through her fingers. While Jae was a good friend, she knew they were far from his only customers, and she wondered if someone else had gotten hurt or—and this was perhaps more worrying—if he had made a deal with the wrong person this time.

She didn’t have to wonder long before another sharp crack ricocheted off the stone walls, followed by a series of grunts and outraged shouts, and then a short, grubby wizard was on the floor while Jae was doubled over with his hands on his knees, both of them sweaty and panting. The wizard shouted a colorful series of threats and obscenities at his capturer, but considering that his full body was tightly bound in thick rope, the words seemed rather empty.

“Oh, knock it off,” Jae wheezed and pulled the man to his feet, and Lily needed no more than a quick glance to identify him. His bowlegs, unshaven face, straggly ginger hair, and bloodshot brown eyes would have been recognizable from a hundred meters away. She would have  _ preferred  _ that he was a hundred meters away because, at less than two meters, the stench of tobacco and alcohol was making her eyes water. 

When Mundungus Fletcher stopped shouting long enough to register Lily sitting in front of him, his features morphed into an attempt at a pleasant smile, although the actual product was a shifty grin. “Why, isn’t it lil’ Lily Flores!” he laughed nervously. “Long time no see! Funny we keep meetin’ like this, eh?” If he could have, he probably would have gestured to the ropes around his torso and ankles, but the fact that his arms were bound to his sides made that impossible. 

She stopped twirling her wand and let it rest in her other palm, and she saw his eyes dart to it. “Mundungus,” she greeted coolly. “Is there any reason I should be glad you’re here?”

“It’s all a big misunderstanding,” he said, “I assure ya!” He scanned the rest of the room, no doubt looking for something to give him an out. Penny met his gaze with an uncharacteristic expression of revulsion, so his eyes moved on until they fell on Talbott, who was leaning against the wall with one hand casually resting on the sheath strapped to his thigh.

“Dung,” Talbott said in similar cool greeting. 

Mundungus whipped his gaze back to Jae in alarm. “Now hol’ on,” he exclaimed. “There’s no need for Aurors here. We can talk this out like civilized folks, can’ we? Wha’ever ya think I did, I swear—”

Talbott cut him off. “How much I see and hear depends solely on what happens next,” he said. “So, please, clarify this  _ misunderstanding  _ for us. I’m sure you have a good explanation.”

Mundungus jerked his chin at him. “You see? This guy gets it.”

“Go on, Dung,” Jae said. “Tell them about the Powdered Moonstone you sold me.”

“Moonstone? Wha’ Moonstone?”

“This Moonstone.” Penny held up the jar of blue powder. “Recognize it?”

“O-oh,  _ that  _ Moonstone.” He laughed nervously again. “Must’ve...must’ve slipped my mind for a mo’ that’s all.”

“Then why is there sugar in it?” Penny demanded.

He shifted uncomfortably. “N-now, that’s the misunderstanding. It wasn’ intentional, I swear. It must’ve got contaminated somehow, that’s it! I swear I didn’ know!” He looked around at all of them pleadingly, but they stared back silently—Penny and Jae both with a seething fury. “It was a mistake, that’s all!” he tried again. “Jus’ a harmless mistake!”

“Harmless?” Jae echoed angrily. “Tell that to Chiara Lobosca! That stuff nearly killed her, and it nearly killed a bunch of other people too. You owe them a lot more than an apology.”

“Now hol’ on,” Mundungus said, but he seemed to be running out of things to say. “Lily...uh, Lilianna,” he corrected when she glared at him. “You know me. Don’t we go way back?”

“We do,” she agreed, “but that’s not a good thing.” She didn’t particularly care for her earliest memories of the petty sneak thief, even if they had to work together in this war now. 

“You gonna shout at me too?”

“No.” Lily rested her arms on her knees and leaned forward until she was eye level with him. She was as upset as the others, but she wasn’t going to show it in the same way. “I don’t have the time for this,” she said seriously. “None of us have the time for this, but we had to put our jobs on hold—had to put the Order on hold—so we could clean up your mess. I don’t know where your loyalty is, but it’s clearly not to the people you pledged it to.”

“That’s not fair!” he exclaimed, outraged. “Dumbledore trusts me!”

“Dumbledore has given you chances. I think that’s different.”

“I’m as loyal as any of you!”

“Then prove it.”

He glared at her, and she glared right back. He was older than her by more than a decade, and he had been in the Order ever since the First War, but while she was out of line in questioning his loyalty, she was too tired to have the patience to deal with him. They had gone through two weeks of extreme stress, and it had all been so one man could profit. She knew which people could be trusted to watch her back, and Mundungus Fletcher was not and likely never would be one of them.

“I think you owe everyone a new jar of Powdered Moonstone,” Jae said. “ _ Untainted. _ ”

“Are you crazy?” Mundungus said. “Do ya know how expensive that—” He broke off when Talbott cleared his throat. “I mean, it migh’ take a lil’ while, but I can find a clean batch for ya. Er, free of charge.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Lily said.

“Jae,” Penny said stiffly, “please get this man out of my shop.”

Jae grinned, finally beginning to look like his usual relaxed self. “Right,” he said and vanished the ropes with a flick of his wand. “You’re free to go.”

Without so much as a goodbye, Mundungus Disapparated with an affronted-sounding pop. Lily made a mental note to expand the Anti-Apparition Charm to the first floor of the building. If one thief could get in and out with little warning, that meant others could too.

“Is Chiara alright?” Penny asked in concern. 

“She will be,” Jae said. “The bright side is that the potion made her too sick to hurt anyone, but now not too many people are comfortable with having a werewolf for a Healer. It’s a bit of a mess.”

“That’s an understatement,” Talbott muttered.

“Chiara’s tough,” Lily said. “If anyone can get through this, it’s her.”

Jae’s expression brightened considerably. “I know,” he chuckled. “I was more worried about you, but I guess I shouldn’t have been.”

“We’re tough too,” Penny said cheerfully.

“Clearly,” Jae agreed. “I wish I had realized what was happening sooner. I could have helped out.”

She shook her head. “If Fletcher can come through with that Moonstone, consider yourself forgiven.”

He gave her another grin. “You have yourself a deal.”

They chatted for a few minutes before Jae had to return to St. Mungo’s. Penny tried to convince him to join them for lunch, but he insisted on going back to check on Chiara. The former Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had clearly maintained a strong friendship after graduation, and Lily had always wondered if there was something more. It made her a little envious but happy for them all the same.

When they reentered the flat after Jae’s departure, they found the three Magizoologists sitting on the sofa with matching sheepish smiles, and Lily would have bet her wand that they had been listening in. “I guess I owe you an apology,” Darius told Penny.

“For what?” Penny asked in surprise.

“Nothing I said to your face.”

Lily bit back a laugh as the other witches snickered at their companion. Avalon playfully rolled her eyes and shouldered her brother, and he shouldered her back with more force, knocking her into Diana and startling Pip, who had been peacefully curled up in the werewolf’s lap. She let out a little cry of dismay as the cat fled, but Lily managed to scoop up the tawny blur as she darted past her legs and return her to Diana’s arms. Instantly forgiving her, Pip began purring again, and Diana murmured her thanks.

Lily was struck by an idea. “You guys were planning to apply for Dragonologist positions in the Romanian reserve, right?” she asked. 

“Yeah?” Avalon said curiously. 

“What if I told you a good friend works there? I could send a letter to him—provide a recommendation.”

They exchanged a series of disbelieving glances and then broke out in huge grins as they practically burst with grateful excitement:

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, yes that would be amazing!”

Now Lily did laugh. “It’s settled,” she said. “I’ll send an owl out before the end of the day.”

“If you’re sticking around until he responds,” Penny said, speaking directly to Diana, “I may be able to restock my Wolfsbane Potion ingredients. I could send you away with a few months worth.” She paused thoughtfully and then added, “I could teach you how to brew it yourself too.”

Diana stuttered, at a loss of words for a moment, before she finally managed, “I’ve never been that good at brewing potions.”

Penny smiled. “Maybe you haven’t had the right teacher.”

Lily pointed at Penny and mouthed only for Diana to see,  _ Trust her,  _ and then flashed a thumbs up. Penny caught the movement and elbowed her in the ribs with neither hesitation nor question. 

“Thank you,” Diana said, echoed by Avalon and Darius. “Thank all of you. I’m afraid we owe you more than we can repay.”

“This is all on one condition though,” Lily said, and she waited until they looked at her with wary expectation before she continued, “You write to us every now and then and tell us all about adventures over there.”

Avalon laughed. “Looking to live vicariously through us?”

“You bet,” Lily said.

“Deal, but you have to write back and tell us all about your old adventures.”

“Deal.” They shook hands. 

“What’s this about writing?” Darius asked incredulously. “We’re right here. Why not just swap stories now?”

Penny smirked and gestured toward him with an inviting flourish. “Okay, Darius, where would you like to start?”

His eyes widened and he held up his hands defensively. “Now hol’ on!” he exclaimed with a horrible interpretation of Mundungus’s accent. The room exploded into laughter, and Lily found herself laughing so hard that tears blurred her vision. Even Talbott chuckled along with them, although no one was in comparison to Penny, who was doubled over, barely able to breathe. In the absence of danger, everything had become ten times funnier, and it was a while before they were able to calm down enough to speak normally. 

“How do you know that guy anyway?” Darius asked, wiping the corners of his eyes. 

“Now that is a story…” Lily said. 

They launched into a trade of tales—some from their school days, some from their post-graduation adventures, and all of increasing absurdity and hilarity. Lily, Penny, and Talbott shared a few of their escapades in their search for the Cursed Vaults, while Avalon, Darius, and Diana shared all the trouble they had gotten into when the siblings had first become Animagi. Lily talked about the time she had released a crate of defective Ever-bashing Boomerangs into the Great Hall with Jae and two others, and Darius talked about the time he had gotten bitten by a Norwegian Ridgeback after making a bet with Diana that he could ride it. They talked for hours, and they only stopped when both Penny and Diana nearly fell asleep sitting up. Lily decided that then was a good time to write that letter to Charlie, and the socially-maxed out Talbott jumped on the chance to take his leave. They parted ways temporarily, but no one was really going anywhere. Not yet.

As Lily constructed her letter, trying to figure out how to even begin to explain everything to Charlie, she thought about how much their lives had changed within these past few weeks. She never would have guessed that when Avalon first walked into the Scarlett Cauldron that they would all walk out with a few more scars, yes, but also with a few more friends. Merlin knew she needed more people that would willingly stand by her side, especially since she had lost so many friends already. 

She rubbed the silver ring on her finger and gazed at a picture frame on her desk where a certain bespectacled friend smiled back at her. 

_ Infinite, unbroken, forever. _

_ I think it’s time for a new Order to rise from the ashes, don’t you? _

What if…?

Yanking open a drawer, Lily pulled out a stack of parchment and proceeded to write not one, but three letters. Penny had finally made her realize something, even if it was something that her friend had been telling her for years. As much as Lily wanted to protect those she cared about, there was no denying that her battles went a lot better when she had people fighting with her, people like Penny, Talbott, and Jae. People like Cedric and Rowan. There was certainly a big fight on the horizon, so maybe they could use some foreign help as well. 

Lily sealed the envelopes with a charm. One would go with Mudflop to Charlie. Two she would deliver in person. That just left…

She waved her wand, and a silvery cheetah leapt out the window in a single bound, off to make her request. Now she only had to wait and see what the phoenix would say in return. 

“Lily?” There was a soft knock on the door, and Penny’s muffled voice made its way through. “Dinner’s nearly ready. Can you help me set the table before they get back?”

“Coming!” she called and hurried to go assist her flatmate. She wanted her opinion before the letters left her hands, although she was fairly confident Penny would agree. She just didn’t know if the recipients would. It wasn’t their fight after all. 

“What’s wrong?” Penny asked from over a steaming pot as Lily dragged extra chairs over to the table.

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but before the words could form, laughter burst through the door, followed by three extra bodies. The Americans had returned. 

“I’ll tell you later,” Lily assured her. It was able to wait. There was no need to jump into the next fight quite yet. Now was the time to enjoy the last little bit of peace, no matter how long it lasted, and it was time to enjoy it together. 

“Promise?” Penny asked.

Lily grinned. “Promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have absolutely no clue what happened with Jae behind the scenes, but whatever it was, it was wild. If you have an idea and want to run with it, feel free because I want to know too.


	17. Death of a Hunter

It took a week for the potioneers’ friend, a wizard by the name of Charlie Weasley, to respond, and Ava was glad for the excuse it gave her team not to go anywhere for a while. Diana needed time to rest and recover, and frankly they all needed to relax. Diana slept for about two days, but before long, she began to return to her normal self. Her hair and skin slowly returned to a shiny, healthy state, and she managed to do more than nibble at her food. Best of all, her personality had returned, and she let Ava and Darius know it by sassing them to no end. 

“ _ Bobo, _ ” she scolded, taking a swipe at Darius’s head. He ducked forward just in time. “The only reason I keep winning is because you two are stupid.”

They were leaving Honeydukes where, as promised, Ava and Darius had pooled their Galleons to buy her the biggest bag of whatever would fit in it, and Diana had her spoils tucked under one arm. They had probably purchased one of everything in the store—minus the Cockroach Clusters and Blood-flavored Lollipops.

“Hey!” Darius exclaimed and swiped back at her. She darted out of the way, so his hand collided with Ava’s shoulder instead. 

Ava retaliated with a punch to his own arm. “Cut it out!” she said. 

Diana laughed. “See? I told you so. The only reason you’re alive is because the universe decided I would be stuck with you. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Is that so?” Darius asked with a grin. He quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trapping her against his side, and Ava wrapped an arm around her waist to effectively pin her between them. “Is that such a bad thing?”

Diana squirmed in a half-hearted attempt to escape them, but she gave up after two seconds. “Well, I can’t exactly lie, can I?” They all laughed at that. 

Ava felt a little bad that the potioneers had to be struck with their rowdy crowd indefinitely. She had tried to return to the Three Broomsticks so Penny and Lily could have more space to breathe in their apartment, but they had argued against it, not wanting them to spend any money when they didn’t have to. Ava was grateful because it was true that her team had not been paid in a long while, but she still tried her best to stay out of their way by taking her team outside whenever she could. 

The potioneers came along on one of their outings, and true to her word, Lily took them to see the herd of thestrals. Neither Ava nor Darius had been able to see the horse-like creatures until recently, and in all honesty, she had been scared to approach them, not because she thought they were dangerous, but because she was afraid of what memories they would drag up. However, when Lily pulled her over to one of the creatures and directed her to stroke its wiry black mane, Ava felt nothing but a sense of calm wonder, and she immediately decided that the others would have to drag her away when it came time to leave. 

Lily grinned at their awe from where she sat cross-legged on the ground. She had a small foal in her lap, and Penny kneeled beside her, happily stroking its head. Ava realized that she didn’t know why Lily—this gentle witch that fought like a warrior—could see the thestrals, and the thought left her feeling oddly sad. 

On the days when her team wasn’t outside, they helped the potioneers where they could in the apothecary, and Penny even began to train Diana in the brewing room. By an absolute miracle, their contact came through with the Powdered Moonstone before the end of the week, and Penny managed to brew three full months worth of Wolfsbane Potion for Diana. Diana, with the shop-owner’s careful instruction, also succeeded in brewing her own batch of the potion, and they celebrated with a small party in the apartment later that evening. 

It was during their little celebration that Penny’s owl, Mudflop, tapped on the window, and they were delighted to find two envelopes tied to his leg, one for Lily and one for Ava and her friends. From his letter, Ava could tell that Charlie Weasley was a cheerful, kind fellow, and he sounded excited to have the three of them on his team. One part in particular intrigued her though, and she didn’t know what to make of it:

 

_ Lily has made it clear that your talents come highly recommended. If what she says is true, then we may have an additional job for you. It would be purely optional of course, and no one would fault you for declining after you hear the details. Working with dragons has its dangers, and not all of them come from the creatures.  _

 

When she asked Lily what she had told him, the witch smiled and refused to answer. She did, however, place a sealed envelope in Ava’s hands and asked if she could deliver it to Charlie in person. Ava didn’t know what to make of this either, but she guessed that she would have to wait until they got to Romania to find out. 

On their last day in Hogsmeade, Ava went to the Three Broomsticks on her own and knocked on the door of one of the upstairs rooms, not too far down the hall from where her own room had been. Winger had been absent from all of their gatherings and activities following the full moon, but she knew he was still here. She had not missed the occasional flash of brown feathers against green leaves or large shadow on the cobblestone streets.

The door opened to reveal Winger, and he stared at her with quiet expectation. If he was surprised to see her, then he didn’t show it. 

“Hi,” she said awkwardly. “Uh, we’re leaving today.”

He stepped back to allow her to enter, and she obliged. The room was strangely empty and spotless. The bed was neatly made, and a trunk sat on top of it with all of its contents carefully folded and packed. Only the desk was a mess due the number of angrily crumpled pieces of parchment that were scattered across its face. Winger quickly moved in front of it, and he rotated the chair to face the door instead before offering it to her. She sat down without comment. 

“I know,” he said as he perched on the edge of the bed. 

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh, you’re still stalking me, are you?” she asked. 

He stiffened. “I didn’t—” he began, but he broke off when he realized she was grinning. “I don’t appreciate that,” he grumbled. 

“Sorry,” she said, and she meant it. He truly had been trying to make sure his friends were safe. She couldn’t fault him for that, even if he had freaked her out on more than one occasion.

“For the record, Lily told me.”

“I believe you.”

A silence fell, and it was an effort for her not to shift uncomfortably. Being alone in a room with him felt different than it had when there had been so much stress and mistrust between them, and she didn’t know if this new feeling was an improvement. It was oddly reminiscent of standing too close to a fire, and she didn’t find it entirely pleasant. 

“So,” she said, “what’s your plan now?”

“I’ll return to London as soon as you’re out of the country,” he said. “I’ll hand in my report and then wait for my next assignment.”

“Oh?” She felt a spike of panic. Report? Of course there had to be a report. He was an Auror, yet somehow she had forgotten. 

“Yes,” he continued. “Fortunately the paperwork should be brief. Since there was no threat, most of the information I gathered turned out to be irrelevant to the investigation, so I see no point in including it in any official documents. I wouldn’t want to waste the Ministry’s time afterall, especially when there are more important things to worry about.”

She stared at him in astonishment, and he smirked. He was essentially going to lie to protect them. More specifically, he was going to lie to the  _ government  _ to protect them. “I feel like I owe you an apology,” she said. 

He shook his head. “You were right. I gave you no reason to trust me, but you took a chance and did anyway. I should thank you.”

“I could say the same about you,” she said. “You’re the one that gave me a chance when everything could have gone to hell.”

He looked uncertain as he understood what she was saying. “You’re talking about…?”

“Yes.”

He had let her cast the Blasting Curse. Had he taken matters into his own hands, he probably could have killed Diana a lot faster, but despite the fact that the werewolf could have—and nearly did—kill his friends, he had waited for her to attempt to fulfill her promise first. It had been a horrible situation with no ideal decision either way, but she was grateful all the same. 

He ran a hand through his hair, and it was the first time she had seen him look truly uncomfortable. “You shouldn’t thank me for that,” he said. “I didn’t actually believe you would do it.”

“You didn’t think I had it in me?” she asked. 

“No, not exactly.” He struggled for words. “I guess I should say I didn’t want you to do it. Would you really have been able to live with that blood on your hands?”

She couldn’t look at him, so she glanced out the window instead, although all that was visible was the roof of the building next door. “Have you ever killed anyone?” she asked.

There was a pause. “No,” he said quietly. 

“Then it had to be me.”

She heard a faint inhale, followed by him shifting his weight on the bed. “We don’t have to talk about this,” he said abruptly. 

She winced. “I’m sorry.”

“No, that’s not—” He took another breath. “I mean, I won’t tell anyone—I promise, but you don’t have to talk about it. Not if it hurts.”

She didn’t respond, mostly because she didn’t know what to say. She was making things awkward. Maybe it would be better if she left. 

“Unless…” he said slowly, stopping her before she could move, “unless it’s worse this way?”

A part of her wanted to cry, and it was a part of her that had come out of nowhere. She hadn’t talked with anyone about this before, not since it had happened, and she refused to discuss it with Darius and Diana. They had never blamed her for it, and Diana had certainly blamed herself, but their support had always been unconditional. “I think,” she said shakily, “I need another opinion.” 

So, she told him, and he listened without interruption. Little more than a month ago, her team had been trying to track down Wolfsbane Potion in the States, but by that point it had become impossible to find. They prepared for Diana’s transformation as best as they could, and despite the fact that there had been no enchanted shack to hide her in, they did a decent job of keeping her calm. Things deteriorated rapidly, however, with the arrival of the werewolf hunter. 

Hunting werewolves wasn’t uncommon. Many governments had their own capture units, and in most cases their officers were not supposed to use deadly force unless absolutely necessary. With that being said, the freelance hunters they sometimes hired were not bound by the same rules, and it was one of these wizards that came after Diana. Apparently he had overheard their argument with a potioneer in one of the apothecaries they had visited, and he had been tracking them ever since. It didn’t matter that Diana didn’t want to hurt anyone; to him, she was a monster that deserved death. 

The second he stepped within a hundred feet of their campsite, Diana went wild and attacked him, and she would have died had Ava not stepped in. The wizard moved faster than anyone she had ever seen, able to alternate between attacks and Apparition in half a heartbeat. At one point in the fight, Diana charged him head-on, and when he raised his wand, Ava knew he would kill her. When she cast her spell to stop him, her instinct had not been to disarm him, nor had it been to save a life; it had been to kill the man that wanted to harm her friend. He had been so focused on Diana that he didn’t react until it was too late, and while the curse itself didn’t kill him, it did destroy his wand. He was left defenseless when the werewolf pounced, and even though he was dead within seconds—mauled beyond recognition, his screams seemed to echo for much longer. 

Diana had been hysterical when she came to, and Ava hadn’t known how to comfort her. She couldn’t imagine the experience of watching your own body involuntarily rip a man to shreds, so when Diana had begged to die before that ever happened again, Ava had numbly agreed. 

They reported the body in the morning with a story about how they had been camping nearby when it had happened and that the werewolf had attacked them too. It was mostly true. The only outright lie they told was about the werewolf running off just before dawn. Ava also had the good sense to hide the broken wand in her boot, which she later burned at the first chance she got. The authorities were doubtful, but the fact that all of them had been scratched up worked to their advantage. The Aurors still cast the Reverse Spell on each of their wands, but it provided no evidence that they had anything to do with the state of the hunter. 

How ironic it was that Ava had cast the Blasting Curse instead of the Disarming Charm. Had she tried to avoid harming him, they all would have gone to jail, if not been given the death sentence, because there was no good excuse for trying to disarm a werewolf. 

They still figured that it would be best to leave the country for a while, so they caught a flight out a week later. It was in the airport that she saw the article in the paper: a tribute to the dead hunter. He was known even in the Muggle world for his wildlife conservation efforts, and he had left behind a wife and two daughters, the eldest of which was old enough to start at Ilvermorny in the fall. 

She didn’t look at Winger when she finished speaking. She hadn’t looked at him once throughout her entire story, having elected to keep her gaze out the window, and now she waited for a response while her heartbeat grew steadily louder in her ears.

“I’m not going to argue with you about why you shouldn’t feel guilty, if that’s what you want,” he said. 

She whipped around to look at him in shock, and he stared back impassively. “That’s not—” she stuttered. 

He raised one sharp eyebrow. “Really?”

Her face heated. 

“Would you do anything differently?” he asked. “If you knew everything that would happen.”

“I...I don’t know. Maybe.”

“What would you do?”

She couldn’t think of anything and he knew it. “Okay, fine,” she said. “No, I wouldn’t do anything different.”

“Would you want this to happen again?”

“No!” she gasped. “Of course not!”

He nodded, apparently satisfied with her answers. “Then I wouldn’t dwell on it quite so much,” he said. “Keep your guilt. Use it to avoid another tragedy, but don’t regret the things you can’t change. That’s just a waste of energy…and of sanity.”

She was dumbfounded. That was a perspective she had never heard before, and it made her both curious and wary of the person across the room from her. “That...is not what I was expecting you to say.”

He chuckled softly. “What were you expecting?”

“I honestly don’t know,” she said. “For you to hate me maybe?”

He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what the right decision is. I only know that, when given the choice between the life of a stranger and the life of your family, you chose to protect your family. It’s what I would have done, but that doesn’t make it moral.”

“Does that make us bad people then?” she asked. 

He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe just selfish. I don’t think that has to be a bad thing.”

She thought about this for a moment, and it didn’t sound quite right. Not from what she had seen of him. “Well, thank you,” she said sincerely, “for protecting my family, and for everything else.”

He gave her one of his faint smiles. “Thank you for protecting mine. I told you we have similar goals.”

There was a pause, but it felt significantly more comfortable than before, as if she had taken one step back from the unseen fire. As she smiled back, she dared to think that it was a moment she wouldn’t mind lingering in. 

“You know,” she said, “I’m going to send letters to the Scarlett Cauldron as soon as we get to Romania. I can send one to London too, just in case you need to follow up on your investigation.”

His expression hardened so quickly that she immediately regretted her words, although she wasn’t sure what she had said wrong. Had she been too forward? “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said, and her heart sank. 

“Oh, okay,” she said, trying not to sound too dejected. Perhaps she had misunderstood his opinion of her. 

“No, that’s not it,” he said quickly, correctly guessing her thoughts. “It’s for your own good. Owls have been getting intercepted more and more often lately, and frequent correspondence with an Auror would draw the wrong kind of attention. I don’t want to accidentally get you involved in my fight.”

That was a perfectly reasonable and considerate response, and a logical person would have accepted it with gracious understanding, so she had no idea why she did not. “But what if I want to?” she blurted out.

He startled, and she realized she had sounded childish. “This isn’t your fight,” he insisted. “Don’t bring it to your team.”

She felt chastized and rightfully so. They had just had a long conversation about protecting family, and here she was acting like her decisions didn’t affect them too. Except… She straightened as a thought struck her. “What if I already have?” she said, mostly to herself. 

He looked at her sharply. “What?”

“We got a letter, and then there was Lily—”

“What did Lily do?” he demanded with a sudden ferocity.

“Nothing!” she exclaimed in alarm, holding her hands up placatingly. “At least not yet.” 

He put his fingers to his temples. “I’m going to kill her,” he muttered. “I’ve had it with that cat. I’m going to kill her.”

She’d had yet to see the calm eagle look this angry, and it was kind of entertaining. She had to fight to hide a smile, which would not have helped the situation. “You said we have similar goals,” she pointed out. “Maybe it’s not my fight yet, but there’s a good chance it will be. You know what’s happening with the werewolves. It’s the whole reason you were sent to spy on us in the first place.”

His dark eyes stared at her intensely, and she couldn’t tell if he was thinking hard or simmering angrily.

“We can be stronger if we help each other,” she tried again. 

“You don’t want to be involved in this,” he said, but it sounded like relinquishment. He reached into the folds of his coat and pulled out an envelope. “Lily gave you one of these?”

She blinked in pleasant surprise. “Yes.”

He handed it to her. “Then give both of them to Charlie Weasley.”

“And then what?”

“You’ll hear from me.”

She tucked the letter in her bag, right next to the other one. She wondered how long he had been carrying it around, and the thought made her grin. “Thank you,” she said. 

He sighed again. “Believe me, Brooks, you should not be thanking me.”

“Ava.”

“What?”

“Ava,” she said. “My friends call me Ava.”

He blinked as if he didn’t know how to process this information. “Alright,” he said uncertainly. “My friends call me Talbott I guess...if that’s what we are.”

“Definitely,” she said. “You automatically earn the title if you survive a full moon with us.” It was a horrible joke, but it earned her another faint smile, with the addition of an eye roll. She figured it was best if she left before she put him through any more hell, intentionally or otherwise, so she stood up. He stood up as well, although neither of them appeared to know what to say. “Well, uh, I should see if my team has finished packing,” she managed. 

“Right,” he said with a nod, and he escorted her in a short, awkward shuffle to the door. 

She turned around to face him in the doorway, and this close to him she had to look up to meet his eyes. He looked down at her inquisitively, waiting for her to say what was on her mind, but she didn’t know how to put it into words. She didn’t have to. Stretching her neck, she leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you around, Talbott,” she said and then hurried down the hallway, leaving him stupefied behind her. 

Her impulses from the past month had gotten her into a huge mess, and it would only get bigger from then on out. But it was a beautiful mess all the same. 

“There you are!” Darius called as she approached the front of the Cauldron. He had a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “You ready to go?”

She laughed, feeling giddy. “More than you know.”

Diana trailed behind him out the door, potion vials clinking as she adjusted her backpack, and she waved happily when she saw Ava. 

This was how it always began: her beautifully bruised and scarred team with their gear in hand and a new adventure on the horizon. It was the fairytale moment that they could enjoy for a short time before the stress and terror returned. Only, this time, there were more than just their three lives interwoven now—for better or worse. 

Darius narrowed his eyes at Ava suspiciously. “What did you do?” he asked. 

“I can’t tell you now,” she said, “but I promise we can talk it out when we get there. I’m not committing to anything without you guys.” And that was the truth. Whatever the future brought, she would face it with her team. That was one thing that had never changed. 

The potioneers joined them to say farewell, and they all exchanged hugs. 

“Take care,” Penny said.

“And tell Charlie hello for us,” Lily added. 

They cheerfully agreed, and the three of them linked hands as they prepared to Disapparate. “Everyone ready?” Ava asked.

“Ready!” Darius and Diana declared. 

“Then go!”

They turned together, and with three simultaneous pops, they disappeared into the black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avalon and Tablott's story will continue after the conclusion of "The Mad Witch." In other words, in the very distant future. I have updated my bio to reflect the current state of my works and have also changed the email address you can reach me by.


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